
Class " ■; , 

Book V 

Copyright N°. 



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THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA - SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

WITH AN APPENDIX 

How to Read the Bible 



BY 



RICHARD GREEN MOULTON 

PROFESSOR OF LITERARY THEORY AND INTERPRETATION 
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 
EDITOR OF THE MODERN READER'S BIBLE 



Nefo fforft 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1918 






<$ 



Copyright, 1918, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published May, 19x8. 



Norfoooi $«0g 

J. S. Gushing Co. —Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



MAY 16 1918 

'GI.A4 97 308 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE 
VIEW 

The Bible at a single view, details merging in the 
light of the whole : this is what is here attempted. 
Not a compendium of theology or religious truth 
founded on the Bible. That is a separate matter. 
First that which is natural, afterward that which 
is spiritual. First, certainly, in order of time: the 
natural sense of the text, read in the full light of 
its literary setting, must precede any deductions 
to be inferred from it. Perhaps, first also in im- 
portance. I, for one, believe that literature, hold- 
ing truth in solution, not precipitated into system 
nor interrupted by analysis, is the most powerful 
medium for the spiritual. 

When a reader, familiar in a general way with the 

B I 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

Bible, sets himself to make a mental summary of 
it, very likely his first impression will be that what 
he is dealing with is history; and this from the 
simple fact that one who has gone through the 
Bible from cover to cover has been traversing the 
ages, from the creation of the world to some day 
of judgment in the future. But this is only a first 
impression. Closer inspection shows that what the 
Bible contains of history is historic framework, 
that serves to hold together other kinds of litera- 
ture, such as story, song, discourse, drama, philos- 
ophy, epistles. These other kinds of literature, 
sometimes called the higher literary forms, contain 
the real message of Scripture. 

With this consideration goes another. What I 
am calling the historic framework must, in the 
nature of things, be late in its date. Only at the 
close of the period of ancient Israel, only at the 
close of the era of the ^primitive Church, could be 
made the disposition of their books which has 
come down to us. On the other hand, the several 

2 



FIRST IMPRESSIONS 

stories, songs, discourses, epistles, would be of every 
variety of date, from the earliest to the latest. 

Putting these two ideas together we see the whole 
of Scripture approaching the form of an auto- 
biography. For, in the case of an autobiography, 
no one supposes that the chapter on the hero's 
childhood was written by him when he was a child ; 
or that the chapter on his marriage, the chapter on 
his entrance upon a business career, would be 
written during his honeymoon or his apprentice- 
ship. Presumably, the man would be advanced in 
years before he would conceive the idea of writing 
his autobiography. As an elderly man he would 
describe his childhood, but would introduce into 
the description some writings of his boyish years, 
with their nursery language and delightful mis- 
spellings. As an elderly man he would tell of his 
marriage, but would illustrate the narrative with 
a selection of love letters; he would support the 
story of his business career with documents of 
appropriate dates. The framework of the whole 
3 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

would have been made at the close of life; the 
illustrative documents would range from early to 
late. In the same way the Bible may be con- 
ceived as an autobiography ; not the autobiography 
of an individual, not exactly that of a nation, but 
the autobiography of a spiritual evolution. And 
this is a consideration of deep suggestiveness. For 
literature is of two kinds, progressive and eternal. 
The greatest work of history, or of science, must 
tend in the course of a generation to become obso- 
lete; either it is cast aside, or by annotation is 
brought up to date. But no one has ever proposed 
to bring the Iliad up to date, or to modernize the 
plays of Shakespeare. From the moment of its 
first appearance poetry is, for good or for evil, 
eternal and unalterable. Now, it is obvious that 
autobiography is one of the kinds of literature 
that are eternal ; it is unalterable after it has left 
the hands of its author. The Bible is not to be 
regarded as a history but as an interpretation of 
history; an interpretation made once for all by 

4 



DRAMA IN TWO ACTS WITH INTERLUDE 

the sacred writers. In a phrase of Scripture itself, 
it is a "faith once for all delivered to the saints." 

Another condition for clearly grasping a mass of 
literature is to have a correct idea of its leading 
sections and component parts. It has been tradi- 
tional to think of the Bible as in two parts, the 
Old and the New Testament. It is better to think 
of it as in three parts. The third is made by the 
Books of Wisdom: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Job, in 
the Bible itself, to which must be added in the 
interest of connectedness Ecclesiasticus and the 
Wisdom of Solomon, which are contained in the 
(so-called) Apocrypha. How these books of wis- 
dom stand apart from the rest of Scripture is mani- 
fest when we remember that in three out of these 
five books there is no mention of the Messiah, of 
the Law, of the Temple ; if in the other two books 
these do appear, they occupy there a very subor- 
dinate place. Wisdom is simply meditation upon 
human life. Now, in their logical relation, these 
books of wisdom belong to the interval between 

5 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

the Old and the New Testament. When the sun 
goes down the stars come out. When the lofty 
mission of Israel to the nations has broken down 
in failure and disappointment, and before another 
world mission has begun which centers around 
Jesus Christ, in this interval simple human life 
comes to the front. And devout meditation on 
this human life is wisdom literature. 

Thus the whole Bible seems to take literary 
shape as a Drama in two Acts of the Old and the 
New Testament, with Wisdom literature as an 
Interlude. The late Sir John Seeley has pointed 
out how, in earlier times, a continuous conception 
of God's dealings with mankind, founded on the 
Bible, had served to general culture as a map of 
all history; how with the neglect of the Bible this 
has been lost, and there has been no substitute. 
But Seeley understates the case. When to the 
historic framework of Scripture the other literary 
forms are added, the different parts of the Bible 
are felt to draw together with the connectedness 

6 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

of a literary plot, the progression from beginning 
to end has the intensity of a dramatic movement. 
Of course, it is not drama in the narrower sense 
which we associate with the stage. The Hebrew 
people had no theater: their powerful dramatic 
genius projected itself wholly in the world of the 
spiritual. The dramatic movement of the Bible 
has for its stage the whole universe, for its period 
all time; God is the hero of this drama, and its 
plot is Divine Providence. 



The word " Testament" in modern English has 
lost the sense it had in the language of our trans- 
lators, where it was equivalent to "Covenant." 
The Old Testament is the Covenant between God 
and a Chosen People; the New Testament is the 
Covenant between God and individual hearts. 
Indeed, "covenant" is the characteristic word of 
Scripture. The Bible is not a treatise on God; 
7 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

its theme is the intercourse between God and man, 
and successive covenants voice this intercourse 
with its varying shades of intimacy. The Bible 
opens with Abraham, the " Friend of God " ; it 
culminates with One who declares, "I am in my 
Father, and ye in me, and I in you." 

But this Abraham does not appear until what 
stands as the twelfth chapter of our versions. The 
preceding eleven chapters make a Prologue to the 
Old Testament. The Old Testament itself is 
occupied with a covenant between God and a 
Chosen Nation; the Prologue glances at previous 
covenants between God and all mankind as repre- 
sented in common ancestors. Adam appears as 
the first man; God enters into covenant with 
Adam; sin comes into the world, and a sinful 
world is swept away by the Flood. Then we have 
again a common ancestor of men in Noah; there 
is a covenant between God and Noah, having for 
its perpetual symbol the rainbow — the bridge of 
light linking heaven and earth. Sin again invades, 
8 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

but there is something more: the curious story 
of Babel suggests the separating languages that 
will ultimately make separating nations. Only 
then is it possible for one nation to be chosen out 
of the rest. But in what sense "chosen"? The 
words of the call make this clear : that in them all 
the families of the earth may be blessed. One 
nation is chosen for the high function of bringing 
the rest of the nations to the knowledge of its God. 
The first Act of the Biblical Drama having thus 
opened, its successive stages are easily distinguished. 
Genesis, as the word implies, is the Origin of the 
Chosen People; it originates in the descendants 
of Abraham, later the children of Israel. We have 
a skeleton of historic framework connecting with 
the world in general; the essential literature is 
the stories of the patriarchs. Simple and vivid 
narration makes the Homer of the Bible; but this 
biblical epic is an epic of family life, family life that 
becomes slowly touched with the divine. Each 
story adds something to the advancing history. 
9 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

The Story of the Call of Abraham — half a page 
in length — narrates the most original thing ever 
done in the world. Abraham is inspired to found 
a nation that is to be distinguished, not by geo- 
graphical or ethnological relations, but by a spiritual 
mission; the oriental household transforms itself 
into a nomadic people, and at every halt in the 
pilgrimage Abraham builds an altar to God. Some 
of the stories, like the Wooing of Isaac, are idyls 
of domestic life ; they bring out also the care that 
is being taken to secure purity of descent. Isaac 
is seen on the altar of sacrifice, with the knife lifted 
to slay him : we see in symbol a people, yet latent 
in its ancestor, devoted to a mission; when the 
lifted knife is arrested we catch the spiritual idea 
of a "living sacrifice." Some of the stories, like 
that of Lot, of Ishmael, of Esau and Jacob, filled 
with the pathos or bustling activities of family life, 
show one and another less worthy member dropping 
out of the line of succession. There is a climax in 
the Story of Joseph and his Brethren — master- 
10 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

piece for all literature of the single story; its ex- 
tended length is justified as we note it connect 
the wandering people for a while with the world 
civilization of Egypt. 

The second stage, covering three biblical books, 
is the Exodus, or Emigration from Egypt. This 
stage of emigration is also the consolidation of a 
family into a nation; it is accordingly treated as 
the constitutional history of Israel, and crowded 
with covenants or statistical documents such as 
would stand as appendices to a modern work of 
history. Twice only does the force of literary 
story come in. At the commencement we have 
the brilliant epic of the Plagues of Egypt, reveal- 
ing the raw material out of which a nation is to be 
formed — slaves trembling beneath taskmasters. 
Towards the close we get the more spiritual Story 
of Balaam : it pictures a nation organized for vic- 
tory, and the terror of surrounding peoples; the 
foreign prophet who is hired to curse it at the very 
sight of this people changes his curse into a blessing. 
ii 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

All this portion of Scripture culminates in the 
great Book of Deuteronomy — the Farewell of 
Moses to Israel. It has the unusual literary form 
of a drama built up out of orations. Underlying 
the whole is a dramatic situation which has ever 
since fascinated the imagination of men: in the 
vast multitude gathered together Moses is the only 
one who realizes the land of promise, and Moses 
is the only one who will never see it. On the back- 
ground of this pathetic situation we follow the 
succession of orations. In the first, Moses reveals 
the secret of his deposition from the leadership of 
Israel. In the second, Moses appears surrounded 
by the Levites and Elders; in his hand he holds 
the Book of the Covenant — first appearance in 
the world of the Bible, the revelation of God in 
written form; the appealing oration concluded, 
he solemnly hands over the Book of the Covenant 
to his successors. A still more imposing national 
function accompanies the third of the orations — 
the Oration at the Rehearsal of the Blessing and 
12 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

the Curse. The rehearsal of this solemn ceremony 
is interrupted before it is complete, and Moses takes 
into his own hands the matter of the Curse : scath- 
ing oratory of denunciation that finds a climax in 
an exodus reversed — Israel in Egypt selling them- 
selves as bondmen to their enemies and finding no 
man to buy them. More oratory follows, and 
oratory gives place to song. We then reach the 
finale of the drama and the Passing of Moses. 
The whole multitude is assembled to see the last 
of their great leader; from the vast numbers of 
the people select representatives of the twelve 
tribes have come out and made a lane along which 
the departing leader will pass. With the failing 
step of extreme age he passes along this line, speak- 
ing as farewell words to each tribe, what to us may 
seem mystic expressions, what thrills the hearers 
as the war cries of each tribe. When at the end 
of this line of the tribes Moses turns round to 
take in for the last time the whole people at 
one view, for a moment all his old vigor comes 
13 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

back to him, and he raises his arms in the final 
blessing : 

None is like unto God, O Jeshurun, 

Who rideth upon the heavens for thy help, 
And in his excellency upon the skies. 

THE ETERNAL GOD IS THY DWELLING PLACE, 
AND UNDERNEATH ARE THE EVERLASTING ARMS. 

Then he turns away, and passes into the solitude 
of the mountain of vision, the solitary death, the 
burial in the sepulcher that no man knoweth. The 
curtain falls on the mourning of Israel for Moses. 

All this constitutes the first of the grand divi- 
sions of Scripture, called in the language of Scripture 
itself THE LAW. It centers around legal ordi- 
nances ; its highest spiritual note is " holiness," in 
the earliest sense of that word — the organized 
separateness of Israel from the other nations of 
the world. In terms of literature, this corresponds 
to what is recognized as the exposition stage of a 
drama: the elaboration of the opening situation 
before the entanglement of the plot has appeared. 
14 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

This opening situation presents Israel as a theocracy 
amid the peoples, its only government the govern- 
ment of the invisible God. With the blessing of 
its founder Israel is dismissed to its sacred mission 
among the nations. No invincibility of warrior 
hosts is assured to it; but spiritual arms will for- 
ever be felt supporting. No region of earth is 
indicated as a final goal: wherever the eternal 
God is, there is the home of Israel. 



II 



The element of entanglement in this biblical 
plot — to retain the phraseology of drama — 
appears in the intrusion of the practical spirit. 
The theocracy is a lofty spiritual ideal. But "we 
must be practical": we must have kings to go 
before us in battle like the other nations. And so 
throughout religious history the standing problem 
is to maintain spiritual ideals amid complication 
of secular machinery by which they are to be 
15 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

realized in practice. We thus reach a transitional 
stage: it is the Transition from a Theocracy to a 
Secular Government. The characteristic word of 
this stage is the Judges : temporary and local kings 
raised up in times of emergency; apart from these 
" every man did that which was right in his own 
eyes," in other words, we have local but not na- 
tional government. Against the meager historic 
framework stand out the strenuous stories of the 
Judges — of Joshua, of Gideon, of Barak, of 
Jephthah. Occasionally, for relief, we have such 
as the exquisite idyl of Ruth : the romantic friend- 
ship of a young woman for her mother-in-law, which 
brought a Moabitess into the ancestral lineage of 
David. Or, humor is made to carry on the work 
of divine providence, where the exuberant physical 
vitality of a Samson brims over in practical jokes, 
covering with ridicule the Philistine foe before 
whom the spirit of the Chosen People had begun 
to cower. With the great name of Samuel we have 
an anticipation of a later era; the judge is also 
16 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

a prophet, and the abortive kingship of Saul is a 
kingship under prophetic tutelage. The climax of 
this stage is the longest epic of the Old Testament, 
which centers around the names Saul, David, 
Jonathan. In Saul we have the broken kingship 
which belongs to the past; in David, the kingship 
" after God's own heart." The link between these 
is Jonathan: the natural heir finds himself bound 
to the man who is to supplant him by the tenderest 
tie of ideal friendship. 

I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan ! 
Thy love to me was wonderful, 
Passing the love of women ! 

We now enter upon the most important division 
of the Old Testament. It should have as title, 
not The Kings, but The Kings and The Prophets. 
We recognize the underlying law of all free govern- 
ment, by which an administration that governs is 
confronted with an opposition that criticizes; in 
this case it is a Secular Government of Kings with 
Spiritual Opposition of Prophets. For the word 
c 17 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

"prophet" signifies " mouthpiece of God"; against 
a merely secular government the Prophets main- 
tain the ideal of the theocracy. We have bare 
annals of the Kings, but spiritual stories of the 
Prophets told with vivid and moving detail. We 
should distinguish between the Earlier and the 
Later Prophets. The Earlier Prophets, like Elijah, 
are men of action; they come into literature as 
heroes of stories which others tell. The Later 
Prophets, such as Isaiah, without ceasing to be 
men of action, are also men of letters, voices of a 
great literary age. The stories of the Earlier 
Prophets, as in previous parts of the Bible, are fitted 
into the exact point of the historic framework to 
which they belong. It is otherwise with the Later 
Prophets. They are represented by miscellaneous 
"Books of the Prophets," which we have ourselves 
to read into the continuous narrative of the historic 
framework. These Books of the Prophets reflect 
both sides of prophetic activity. At times we have 
an Isaiah or a Jeremiah, like Elijah or Elisha, con- 
18 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

fronting king or people in some momentary crisis. 
But there is more than this. What may have been 
the subject matter of some fifty or a hundred daily 
ministrations, stripped of all that is occasional 
or accidental, has been worked up afresh by the 
prophets into some higher literary form — of dis- 
course, or song, or drama — and comes down to 
the ages with a message that is for all time. 

David and Solomon, with all their errors, never- 
theless ruled in the spirit of the theocracy. With 
the son of Solomon there comes a schism of the 
Chosen People. The northern tribes revolt and 
make a nation in themselves; they are soon ab- 
sorbed into the idolatry of the surrounding peoples. 
Here then is the great field for prophecy, and this 
part of the Bible glows with the grand prophetic 
ministry of Elijah and Elisha. When the northern 
nation falls into captivity there ensues a reconsti- 
tution of the Chosen People of God. It had begun 
by being a nation ; it is reconsecrated to its mission 
as the single tribe of Judah. The magnificent 
19 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

seventy-eighth psalm may stand in place of na- 
tional anthem to this new Kingdom of Judah. By 
a favorite effect in Hebrew poetry, the pendulum 
swing of its strophes alternates between opposite 
thoughts, between the Divine energy on behalf of 
Israel on the one hand and on the other hand the 
human frailty that ever defeats the Divine purpose, 
until, as a climax, the "Lord awakes as one out of 
sleep," thrusts northern Ephraim contemptuously 
aside, and reconstitutes the people of his choice 
in the lineage of the shepherd David. 

It is at this point that we realize fully how we 
have passed into the second of the grand divisions of 
Scripture. THE LAW has given place to THE 
PROPHETS. Instead of the holiness of a national 
organization we have new motives : the passion for 
Righteousness; the presentation of God as the 
Lover of Israel; confronting the evil that is in the 
world Righteousness and Love unite to make the 
supreme ideal of Redemption, and the final note of 
the whole Bible is already anticipated. 
20 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

Varied as may be its outer forms, the topics of 
prophetic literature sum up as two. The prophets 
sing of a Golden Age: a Holy Mountain, flowing 
with milk and honey; a serenity in which the wolf 
and the lamb lie down together, a little child lead- 
ing them; songs of deliverance sound daily around 
wells of salvation. Greek poetry had its age of 
gold : but this was placed at the beginning of things, 
and later time was a slipping down to ages of silver, 
brass, stone. The Golden Age of the Hebrews is 
ever in the future : there is a spiritual tonic in the 
constant thought of a glorious consummation 
which the faithful are themselves to aid in bringing 
to pass. But side by side with this is the other 
topic of the purging Judgment through which alone 
the Golden Age may be reached ; and reached only 
by the faithful remnant. 

It is naturally here that the dramatization of the 

spiritual — the main contribution of the Bible to 

literary form — is most prominent. Speakers in 

such dramas are God and the Celestial Hosts; 

21 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

Israel Suffering, or Israel Repentant; the Saved 
and the Doomed, the East and the West, answer 
one another. The Voice of Prophecy has a domi- 
nant place in the dialogue ; impersonal Voices and 
Cries help to carry on the movement; at times, 
like the chorales of a modern oratorio, hymns of 
meditation mark an emphatic point. In harmony 
with such spiritualized speakers we have a spirit- 
ualized dramatic scenery in snatches of prophetic 
vision. Sometimes these hardly transcend the 
domain of imagery: the judgment appearing as 
the burning of fire under the glory of the thickets 
until they roll upward in volumes of smoke; or 
as a Day of the Lord, cruel with wrath and fierce 
anger, when men fling away their idols to go into 
the caves and rocks and holes of the earth before 
the glorious majesty arising to shake mightily the 
world. At other times the scenic suggestion is 
more pronounced : as when the veil of judgment 
darkness that wraps the nations is suddenly rent, 
and the Mountain of Salvation stands out above a 
22 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

ruined world ; from its embattled heights the songs 
of the Saved are heard telling of death swallowed 
up for ever and tears washed away from all 
faces. 

The dramatic movement pervading the Old 
Testament reaches its point of greatest intensity 
as we gradually realize that this purging judgment 
in the earth is to involve the fall of Israel as a 
nation. But where the darkness is greatest, in 
the book of Jeremiah, there is a gleam of light 
beyond it, and we begin to hear of a New 
Covenant. 

Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will 
make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and 
with the house of Judah: not according to the cov- 
enant that I made with their fathers in the day that 
I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land 
of Egypt : which my covenant they brake. . . . But 
this is the covenant that I will make with the house 
of Israel after those days, saith the LORD ; I will put 
my law in their inward parts, and in their heart will 
I write it. 

23 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

The Theocracy of a nation is to break down; it 
will give place to a Kingdom of God that is within 
men. The Old Covenant, the Old Testament, 
lingers in spirit to the days of John the Baptist. 
The New Testament, the New Covenant, has its 
germ in the Book of Jeremiah. 

The Captivity is a parenthesis in the general move- 
ment of the Old Testament. Ezekiel ministering, 
in quaint yet strong forms of oratory, to the cap- 
tives by the river Chebar; the stories in the books 
of Daniel and of Esther, which appeal to children 
and furnish critics their models of the grand style ; 
these unite to present the Chosen People even in 
captivity witnessing for their God to the nations. 
The Return from Captivity is the return neither of 
a nation nor of a tribe ; it is those who are anxious 
to restore the worship of God and renew the broken 
covenant who brave the journey across the desert 
to the Holy Land. Once more the Chosen People 
has been reconstituted: the Hebrew Nation has 
reappeared in the form of the Jewish Church. 
24 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

Alike the form of government and the prevailing 
spirit is ecclesiastical. The history of the Kings 
is recast in the form of ecclesiastical Chronicles, 
with all the prophetic stories eliminated. From 
THE PROPHETS we have reverted to THE LAW ; 
the holiness of the first era has taken a new form 
in the ceremonialism that seeks to frame a "hedge 
about the Law." But the spirit of commentator- 
ship which makes the scribe is also the spirit which 
initiates the collecting together of the rich litera- 
ture of Israel. The supreme treasure of its collection 
is the Book of Psalms. Its prologue contrasts, 
under the exquisite image of the rooted Tree and 
the Chaff blown about by the wind, the meditative 
and the worldly life. What follows makes, for 
literature, the high water mark of lyric poetry. 
In the sphere of the spiritual, it is a manual of de- 
votion that appeals equally to all ages and all 
varieties of mind ; the psalms are the confidant of 
the soul in all the varying moods of its inter- 
course with God. 

25 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

III 

As there has been a Prologue, so there is an 
Epilogue to the Old Testament. This Epilogue, 
in our ordinary versions, does not stand separated 
from the rest of the Book of Isaiah ; although those 
whose standpoint is history like to speak of the 
fortieth and following chapters as a "second Isaiah." 
In literary terms, this Epilogue is the most sublime 
of spiritual dramas; the great Rhapsody of "Zion 
Redeemed." 

After the opening note of Jehovah's word of 
comfort for his people has been borne by a succes- 
sion of voices across the desert that separates the 
land of exile from the Holy Land, the curtain rises 
upon the most stupendous scene in all prophecy. 
The nations of the earth, away to the farthest isles 
of the sea that make the boundary of the prophetic 
world, are summoned before the bar of God to 
hear of one scattering the nations like dust. It is 
the triumphal career of Cyrus among the peoples 
26 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

that makes the starting point of this drama. Touches 
of poetic scorn picture the assembling of the idola- 
trous peoples: the carpenter encourages the gold- 
smith, and he that smootheth with the hammer 
him that smiteth the anvil; they look well to the 
soldering of the idols that they may be strong to 
encounter the true God; all the while that Israel 
is being brought to the place of meeting with journey- 
ing mercies. The imagination conceives the scene 
of the nations before the bar of God, the idolatrous 
nations on the one side and on the other side the 
Chosen People of Israel. Jehovah challenges the 
Idols, "to declare former things," "to shew things 
to come' , — in other words, to put such significance 
on the whole course of events from first to last as 
will compare with the significance the true God is 
about to reveal. It is nothing less than a divine 
philosophy of all history that is about to be pro- 
claimed from the throne of the universe. The 
Idols are dumb. Then Jehovah speaks his own 
interpretation of history. It is the proclamation 
27 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

of Israel as His Servant ; and the service is to bring 
judgment to the nations. But not by violence; 
not by conquest. A bruised reed shall he not break, 
and the smoking flax shall he not quench; by 
agencies gentle as the light shall he bring the nations 
to God. But as the interrupting hymns of adora- 
tion die down, the proclamation is heard continuing : 
how this Servant of Jehovah is blind, is deaf, is 
hid in the prison houses of the nations for his sins. 
Then is heard the note of redemption, enshrined in 
beautiful imagery. 

When thou passest through the waters, I will be with 
thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow 
thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt 
not be burned. ... I have given Egypt as thy 
ransom; Ethiopia and Seba for thee . . . since thou 
hast been precious in my sight. 

In this quaint figure is poetically hinted, what 
Ezekiel expresses in plain prose, how that the 
triumph of the conqueror over the nations is the 
"wages" Jehovah gives him for his setting the 
28 



ACT FIRST: THE OLD TESTAMENT 

Chosen People free. But it is not deliverance 
only. " Bring forth the blind people that have 
eyes, and the deaf that have ears" : Israel emerges 
from the prison houses of the captivity awakened 
at last to its sublime mission. In the second scene 
the awakened people is ministering to its own 
exiles, to afflicted Zion, and to the nations, inviting 
them " without money and without price" to return 
from their sins unto "our God." 

But the central figure of this spiritual drama 
seems to undergo change as the movement proceeds. 
At the commencement, the Servant of Jehovah is 
unmistakably the Nation of Israel. A little later 
it is spoken of in terms that imply personality 
rather than nationality; as one who gives his back 
to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that pluck 
off the hair. In the very center of the poem — 
the climax of emphasis in the movement of Hebrew 
poetry — this Servant of Jehovah has become a 
Mystic Personality: the Chorus of Nations catch 
the great thought of vicarious sacrifice. 
29 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

He was wounded for our transgressions, 
He was bruised for our iniquities : 

The chastisement of our peace was upon him ; 

And with his stripes we are healed. 

What is stranger still, from this point the expres- 
sion "Servant of Jehovah" disappears altogether; 
the central figure of the poem appears under another 
name. There are pictures of moral chaos, the 
Voice of Prophecy still striving to minister to those 
who are blindly groping for judgment. Jehovah 
is displeased that there is no intercessor; His own 
arm shall bring salvation ; as a rushing stream which 
the breath of the LORD driveth, a Redeemer shall 
come to Zion. The Hymn of Zion Redeemed rings 
out; as its lofty strains die away the Redeemer is 
pictured as entering Zion, speaking his message of 
peace. 

The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me ; because the 
LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto 
the meek, he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, 
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of 
the prison to them that are bound; ... to comfort 

30 



INTERLUDE OF WISDOM LITERATURE 

all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in 
Zion, to give unto them a garland for ashes, the oil of 
joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit 
of heaviness. 

It is now the Redeemer who occupies the whole 
field of view ; he is seen comforting Zion — no 
longer afflicted Zion — and calling on the Watch- 
men of Jerusalem to cast up the highway for those 
who are returning to the city of the redeemed. 
And, to mark the conclusion of the whole move- 
ment, there follows immediately the Day of Judg- 
ment : a judgment of chariots of whirlwind for the 
sinner; for the saved a new heaven and a new 
earth, Jerusalem and her lovers rejoicing together, 
her peace flowing like a river. And with this theme 
of Redemption triumphant the curtain falls on the 
Old Testament. 

IV 

The gap between the Old and the New Testa- 
ments is filled with a new interest — Wisdom litera- 
ture. This wisdom is of two kinds. In part, it 
3i 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

is made up of brief sayings, bright in expression and 
profound, which convey particular aspects of human 
life. But there is also a higher Wisdom — often 
expressed in the literary form of personification — 
which is seeking to realize the harmony of all things. 
The nineteenth psalm delights to place side by side 
the starry heavens above and the law of God within 
us. So to the higher Wisdom the life without and the 
life within are one ; the power that restrains from sin 
is akin to the power that holds the universe together. 
The historic framework which gives connected- 
ness to the Old and to the New Testament is entirely 
lacking in the books of wisdom. We have to supply 
it from secular history. What was going on in the 
world at large in the interval between the Old and 
the New Testaments? For one thing, the center 
of gravity of civilization was shifting steadily west- 
ward. The latest historical note of the Old Testa- 
ment is the triumphal career of Cyrus the Persian. 
In the centuries that followed, the domination of 
the world passed from Persia to Greece, in the 
32 



INTERLUDE OF WISDOM LITERATURE 

conquests of Alexander; before the New Testa- 
ment is reached it has passed from Greece to Rome. 
But there is something more. It cannot be reiter- 
ated too often that the foundation of our modern 
culture and civilization lies in the union of two ele- 
ments that come from antiquity, the union of Hel- 
lenic and Hebrew civilizations. What we call the 
secular in modern times is the continuation of what 
was begun for us by the Greeks. Of our spiritual 
nature the roots are not Greek but Hebrew; that 
Hebraic civilization which is reflected in the litera- 
ture we call the Bible. These two things, Hellenic 
and Hebraic, were the grand originalities of antiq- 
uity ; they were also separate one from the other, 
each working out its course independently. Now, 
it was in the interval between the Old and the New 
Testament that Hellenic and Hebraic civilizations 
were first brought together. The conquests of 
Alexander forced Greek culture upon the whole 
civilized world, and so upon the Jews. After strenu- 
ous opposition, forever associated with the glorious 
D 33 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

struggle of the Maccabees, Palestine was gradually 
Hellenized. Moreover, a new city named after the 
conqueror, the modern Alexandria, became a seat 
of Judaism hardly second to Palestine. All this 
has an important bearing upon wisdom literature, 
and upon the idea of human life which it embodies : 
what is involved is nothing less than the question 
of the immortality of the soul. 

Hellenic civilization stood for the idea of immor- 
tality. But it was immortality in a sense that mod- 
ern thought would entirely reject, for it was immor- 
tality apart from individuality. The soul, it was 
conceived, was in its nature indestructible. But 
individuality was something alien to the soul, 
something akin to evil; only after everything of 
personality had been purged away could be attained 
the immortality of the universal soul, individuality 
disappearing as a drop is lost in the ocean. Of 
immortality in this sense the Old Testament knows 
nothing. Where, in a few passages, it touches 
what is beyond death, the reference is to a concep- 
34 



INTERLUDE OF WISDOM LITERATURE 

tion entirely different; the conception, common 
to all ancient civilizations alike, of a dim conscious- 
ness surviving even in the grave, an ever-waning 
consciousness which slowly goes out like a mist 
dispersing in air. On the other hand, Hebrew 
thought stood for the idea of Personality. It 
conceived God as a personal God. Of course, Greek 
thought had its personal deities; but with the 
Greeks Deity was only the second power in the uni- 
verse; beyond Deity was the impersonal power of 
Destiny, for "not even Zeus can escape the thing 
decreed." It is the great achievement of the Bible 
that it strikes down once for all this idea of Des- 
tiny, with its paralysis of the moral energies; the 
word never occurs in the Bible, except in a few pas- 
sages where those who "prepare a table for Fortune 
and fill up mingled wine unto Destiny" stand as 
synonyms for the wicked who are to be overwhelmed 
in the judgment. The Bible knows only of one 
supreme power in the universe, God expressed in 
terms of personality. This is not to be styled 
35 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

anthropomorphism; on the contrary, the supreme 
sin of the Old Testament is the sin that would make 
God in the likeness of anything in the heavens above 
or the earth beneath or the waters that are under 
the earth. God is conceived of as personal only 
because, after all search has been made, personality 
remains the highest conception of which the human 
mind is capable. It is the constitution of our eye- 
sight which obliges us to see the horizon as circular ; 
similarly, the finite can comprehend the infinite 
only in terms of what is its highest conception. 
There is nothing in this of limitation: as man's 
mind expands its horizon expands with it, and this 
horizon of man is God. The account then stands 
thus: of our two ancestral civilizations the one 
proclaims immortality apart from individuality, 
the other emphasizes personality ignoring immortal- 
ity; when Hellenic and Hebraic civilizations come 
together the way is cleared for a conception that 
transcends both — the immortality of the individual 
soul. 

36 



INTERLUDE OF WISDOM LITERATURE 

In Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus the idea of immor- 
tality is conspicuous by its absence. With the Book 
of Job, it is only in moments of spiritual insight that 
Job rises to the new idea. Intent upon the vindi- 
cation of his innocence, which is also the vindica- 
tion of the righteousness of God, Job is moved at 
times to a surety that, "even after worms have 
devoured this skin," he will see his heavenly Vindi- 
cator standing upon the earth. Even Job does not 
follow up these flashes of inspiration ; and the other 
speakers in the dialogue entirely ignore them. 
Ecclesiastes comes from the Judaism of Palestine, 
at a time when the atmosphere of Palestine is full 
of this novel ideal of immortality; the Hebrew 
proclivities of the writer prevent the assimilation 
of the idea, and he plaintively exclaims, Who know- 
eth the spirit of a man that it mounteth upward, 
and the spirit of a beast that it goeth downward 
to the earth? From the Judaism of Alexandria 
comes the final book of wisdom ; almost its opening 
words declare that God made not death, that right- 
37 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

eousness is immortal. With the sustained rhetoric 
of Greek style it pictures the life of the wicked as 
inspired by despair of aught beyond the grave, as 
led to antagonism against the righteous with their 
higher hope. Then the picture is reversed : from a 
dishonored grave those same wicked rise to learn 
how all the while "the souls of the righteous have 
been in the hand of God "; this triumph of "the 
righteous who live forever" contrasts with the 
vanity of the ungodly life that vanishes as foam 
before the tempest. Then all the elements of na- 
ture combine in a tempest of destruction that sweeps 
evil away. In the despair of Ecclesiastes the higher 
Wisdom had disappeared; its place was taken by 
a Vanity of vanities, an emptiness of all meaning 
in the sum of things. With the new hope is recov- 
ered the higher Wisdom, the Wisdom in which 
immortality has a place. 

If, then, Wisdom literature makes an interlude 
between the Old and the New Testament, it is also 
a link binding them together. Wisdom is only 

38 



ACT SECOND: THE NEW TESTAMENT 

meditation on life. But the life which passes from 
the Old to the New Testament is a life irradiated 
with the idea of immortality. 



The curtain rises on the Second Act of the Biblical 
Drama. The New Testament, like the Old, shows 
historic framework and higher literary forms. We 
have, first, the Acts and Words of Jesus : the Acts 
the framework to the Words. Then we have the 
Acts and Words of the Apostles ; these Words tak- 
ing the form of epistolary literature. There re- 
mains the single book that serves as epilogue, alike 
to the New Testament and to the Bible as a whole. 

And a powerful dramatic movement underlies 
the whole New Testament. But here is found the 
difficulty which attaches to every case in which a 
work of ancient history is being followed by a mod- 
ern reader — the difficulty that the reader knows 
the end from the beginning ; what the course of the 
39 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

narrative presents of crises and climax is discounted 
beforehand by its familiarity. It needs distinct 
mental effort on the reader's part to place himself 
in the historic position of the events he is following. 
When this is done, the dramatic movement of the 
New Testament is abundantly evident ; it is found 
in the slowly and gradually enlarging conceptions 
of Jesus Christ which the course of the narrative 
reveals. And this is a progression from zero to 
infinity. 

With the instinct of an historian, Luke has indi- 
cated the starting point of this movement where he 
describes Jesus opening his ministry in the city 
where he had been brought up. The courtesies 
of the synagogue are extended to him ; he is invited 
to read the lesson for the day and speak a word 
of exhortation. The lesson which it falls to him 
to read is the very passage of the Isaiahan rhapsody 
where the Redeemer is pictured as entering Zion. 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he anointed 
me to preach good tidings to the poor ; he hath sent me 
40 



ACT SECOND: THE NEW TESTAMENT 

to proclaim release to the captives, and recovering of 
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. 

Returning the roll to the attendant, Jesus assumes 
the seat of authority. Luke writes that the eyes 
of all in the synagogue were fastened on Jesus; 
and we fancy the eyes of all history fastened on Jesus 
in this his first pronouncement on himself. The 
opening word is decisive : To-day hath this scripture 
been fulfilled in your ears. In unmistakable terms 
Jesus identifies himself with the Redeemer of Zion ; 
the broken work of the Old Testament is resumed 
under his leadership. But with what result? Not 
a soul of those who hear accepts ; on the contrary, 
there is a wrathful movement of the whole congre- 
gation as if for an act of lynching. With this blank 
negation of all claims there starts this slow progres- 
sion in men's conception of Jesus Christ, until, 
before the end of the New Testament, language 
is strained to find for these conceptions expression. 
In the first half of the gospel narrative Jesus 
4i 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

appears as a Master, that is Teacher, with a band of 
Disciples, who slowly take on organization as Apos- 
tles. The teaching is in the form of the brief say- 
ings and parables of wisdom literature; the theme 
is a kingdom of God on earth which, at this stage, 
might seem no more than the prophetic dream of 
a golden age expressed in the language of wisdom. 
Wonder works, which a later age of science will 
call miracles, accompany the teaching; and they 
are works of healing and mercy. A turning point 
comes in the Confession of Peter. Answering the 
challenge of Jesus, Peter leads the Disciples — 
but only the Disciples — in the recognition, Thou 
art the Christ, the King of this Kingdom of God 
on earth. Most decisive is the word of acceptance ; 
playing upon the name of Peter (which signifies 
rock) Jesus declares that on the rock of this con- 
fession his Church stands founded. What follows 
is significant. "From that time," writes Matthew 
— and Luke and Mark follow the same order of 
narration — " Jesus began" to speak of his suffer- 
42 



ACT SECOND: THE NEW TESTAMENT 

ings and death at Jerusalem. What then follows 
is still more significant : when the idea of the Cross 
has thus been linked with the idea of the King we 
have the Transfiguration, — the momentary vision 
of Jesus in glory, with the Law and the Prophets, 
represented in Moses and Elijah, doing homage 
to the higher dispensation. 

With slow stages of advance there follows a move- 
ment towards the sacred metropolis; on the one 
side, works of healing and teaching; on the other 
side, growing expectation of a kingdom to be re- 
vealed. The entry into Jerusalem is in kingly 
state, which echoes the imagery of Old Testament 
prophecy. The battle between old and new fol- 
lows in daily clashes throughout the Temple and 
the holy city. The close of the conflict is not long 
delayed. Among the earlier parables of Jesus had 
been one which told of a barren fig tree, with the 
cry to cut it down met by pleas for mercy and time 
for amendment. At this point, the sight of a fig 
tree with a brave show of leaves and no fruit is 
43 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

lifted into a symbol : Henceforth no fruit shall 
grow on thee for ever ! And Matthew groups the 
repeated denunciations of a barren religion into a 
Sevenfold Woe, echoing the Sevenfold Woe of 
Isaiah. Then follows a final word. 

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, 
and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often 
would I have gathered thy children together, even as 
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye 
would not ! Behold, your house is left unto you deso- 
late! 

The King of the new kingdom of God on earth thus 
dissolves the old dispensation. Jesus, in the pri- 
vacy of intimate communion with his followers, 
awaits the close of his ministry on earth. 



VI 



These last hours of Jesus with the Disciples, his 
Passion, Resurrection and Ascension, topics on which 
devotion loves to linger, all this is a pause in the 
44 



ACT SECOND: THE NEW TESTAMENT 

onward movement of the Bible. It is when we 
reach the Acts of the Apostles that the full range 
of the New Testament becomes clear. The Christ 
of God's kingdom on earth has founded his Church ; 
the Church of the New has superseded the national 
theocracy of the Old Testament. But what are we 
to understand by the Church ? The word " ecclesia " 
exactly echoes the original " call " of Abraham and 
his descendants from among the nations. The 
high function. to which this Church is called is to 
be "witnesses"; that to which they are to witness 
is an "evangel," a message of gladness. Thus 
THE GOSPEL makes the last of the grand divisions 
of Scripture, the final dispensation to which, in the 
Transfiguration, the Law and the Prophets had 
done homage. Apostles take the place of Prophets ; 
holiness has a new meaning in a spiritual relation 
to Christ; the Law itself must yield to the higher 
and more exacting law of Christian "liberty." 

The Book of Acts furnishes the historic background 
for this part of Scripture. No literary work was 
45 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

ever more clear in its structure, nor more complete, 
than the Book of Acts when once its purport is 
understood. The commission to the Apostles is 
twofold : they are to witness for Jesus (i) to Jeru- 
salem and the Holy Land, and (2) to the uttermost 
part of the earth. Obviously, the two parts of 
this commission stand in different relations to his- 
toric narrative. A few pages may relate the open- 
ing of the gospel to Jerusalem and the Holy Land. 
But how can a book of the first century deal with 
the opening of the gospel to the whole world, a pro- 
cess extending through the ages, imperfectly real- 
ized even now? All that is possible in a work of 
this date is to present the conception of world-evan- 
gelization; an ever enlarging conception of the 
message itself and the machinery by which it is to 
be propagated. The successive stages of this 
enlarging conception make the structure of the Book 
of Acts; and each successive stage is accentuated 
by vision, or by miracle, or by a combination of 
the two. 

46 



ACT SECOND: THE NEW TESTAMENT 

The Opening of the Gospel at Jerusalem dates 
from the day of Pentecost. This incident of Pente- 
cost is to the New what the incident of Babel was 
to the Old Testament; the latter foreshadowed 
a world falling apart into separating languages 
and nations, from the day of Pentecost the sepa- 
rated nations are to be drawn into the unity of the 
gospel. The many-peopled crowd at Jerusalem 
are confronted with a wonder: they see that all 
who speak to them are Galileans, yet " every man 
heareth in his own language wherein he was born." 
So throughout the ages those who speed on the 
gospel message can but speak it as they understand 
it ; but those who receive the message, by a mystic 
process, reinterpret it, each in terms of his own na- 
tional life and civilization. 

From this starting point the first stage of advance 
is the Opening of the Gospel to the Gentiles. The 
modern reader, himself probably a gentile, takes this 
as a matter of course ; to the New Testament world 
this is a perpetual stumbling block, the unthink- 
47 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

able idea that men could become Christians without 
first becoming Jews. The vision of Peter reveals 
the new idea. The miraculous conversion of Paul 
brings the instrument for realizing it ; a leader com- 
bining Hellenic and Hebraic culture, a means of 
mediation between the two halves of the intellectual 
world. 

We are confronted with two Christianities; a 
Jewish Christianity centering at Jerusalem, a Gen- 
tile Christianity with its seat at Antioch, where 
first the followers of Jesus are called "Christians." 
An incident of this Church at Antioch reads like 
a second Pentecost ; by sudden revelation is brought 
to the Church the idea, to us so familiar, that the 
machinery for the propagation of the gospel lies, 
not in any scheme of conquest or enterprise, but 
in the simple missionary journey. The missionary 
spirit is interwoven into the framework of Chris- 
tianity; the Church can stand only by forever 
advancing. 

The itineraries of Paul are no more than a detail. 

4 8 



ACT SECOND: THE NEW TESTAMENT ; 

The crisis that follows appears where these journey- 
ings seem mysteriously checked: the apostles 
would move in one direction and are hindered, 
they would move in another direction and "the 
spirit of Jesus suffers them not." Vision comes to 
their aid : the vision of a man of Macedonia crying, 
Come over and help us. Macedonia is Europe: 
the new stage of advance is the extension of the 
gospel from Asia to Europe; from stationary Asia 
to progressive Europe; from Asia, where religions 
naturally rise and tend to stagnate, to Europe, in 
which Christianity will leaven the whole evolution 
of the world's civilization. 

A new departure soon follows, affecting the ma- 
chinery of world-evangelization. Paul, grappling 
with his heavy task in the large cities of Europe, is 
commanded in vision to undertake a more settled 
ministry. The effect of this is indirect : prevented 
by such extended residence in Corinth or elsewhere 
he can no longer make his frequent visits to the 
other churches, and must keep in touch with them 
E 49 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

by letters. Thus the machinery of the missionary 
journey is supplemented by this new organ of eccle- 
siastical literature. The Pastoral Epistles begin, 
which we must read into the proper place for each 
in the historic framework of the Book of Acts. 
These Pastoral Epistles make a counterpart to the 
Books of the Prophets; like those Books of the 
Prophets they deal alike with what is transient and 
what is permanent. Each epistle seems called forth 
by some burning question ; in each there is a widen- 
ing out to fundamental ideas of the new religion. 
In the Church of Thessalonica some of the brethren 
have died: have these fallen out of the Christian 
hope? The Epistles to the Thessalonians reassure 
on this point, but go on to the whole topic of the 
resurrection. The Epistle to the Galatians is called 
forth by the antagonism of Judaizing Christianity; 
the fiercely controversial tone of the epistle does 
not preclude enlargement on the sublime concep- 
tion of spiritual liberty, a liberty the restraining 
power of which transcends law. Particular matters 
5o 



ACT SECOND: THE NEW TESTAMENT 

of only antiquarian interest draw the Epistles to 
the Corinthians; the passing problems are met, 
but the argument from time to time opens up basic 
religious ideas. The resurrection of Jesus is made 
the spiritual resurrection of his followers; the 
Church is conceived as a vital organism ; above all, 
the new attitude to all humanity can find no word 
in current language to express itself, until it trans- 
forms the old word " love " into a new meaning, a 
spiritual climax beyond even the climaxes of faith 
and of hope. 

It might seem as if we had here commenced a 
progression that would extend through the ages to 
our own time and beyond. But for the age of the 
New Testament there is a point of finality: the 
world is a unity under the headship of Rome. Hence 
a climax to the Pastoral Epistles is found in the 
Epistle to the Romans. Here it is no longer single 
questions, but the whole conception of the "new 
righteousness" which is unfolded; an exposition 
which is at the same time a harmony of Hellenic 
5i 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

and Hebraic, the Old Testament and the New, Law 
and Gospel; and it is addressed to an audience 
which stands for universal civilization. 

With Paul a prisoner in Rome we lose the historic 
framework of the Book of Acts. A framework 
may be supplied by inference from the books of the 
New Testament that follow. It may occur to many 
readers of Scripture to wonder why the New Testa- 
ment ends just where it does end, and why the 
narrative is not continued to take in the centuries 
that succeed. But the age of the primitive Church 
was sharply sundered from succeeding times by a 
peculiar idea which possessed the minds of the first 
Christians. It was the idea that their age was 
"the last times," that the end of the world was 
close at hand. The expected consummation they 
express sometimes as the second "coming of 
Christ " ; sometimes they use the more significant 
phrase, "the revelation of Jesus." Closely follow- 
ing the day of Pentecost the idea appears in the 
community of goods ; if the world is near its end, 
52 



ACT SECOND: THE NEW TESTAMENT 

what use is there in property, unless to relieve 
immediate needs of the poorer brethren ? Given an 
absorbing ideal like this, it is natural that the longer 
the consummation is delayed the keener becomes 
the expectation of the crisis. It is this quickened 
expectation of the near coming of Christ that makes 
the framework into which we can read the remaining 
books of the New Testament. Shorter epistles — 
of Timothy, of Titus, of Peter, of Jude, of John — 
are filled with emphasis on the idea of the last days, 
the end of all things. In the larger works, under 
the tension of this quickened expectation, the always 
enlarging conception of Jesus Christ and his gospel 
is seen to advance by leaps and bounds. 

We have the Epistle to the Ephesians, with its 
characteristic word " mystery." It must be under- 
stood that this word in the New Testament never 
has its modern meaning. The reference is always 
to popular religions of the time known as " Myster- 
ies." Such Mystery Religions involve two things: 
there is an imposing outward ceremonial, open to 
53 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

all the world, but there is also a hidden meaning of 
such ceremonial known only to the initiated. In 
this spirit the Epistle to the Ephesians speaks of 
the "mystery of Christ," the "mystery which from 
all ages hath been hid in God," the mystery of 
"summing up all things in Christ, the things in the 
heavens and the things upon the earth." The idea 
is startling in its boldness : as if the whole natural 
course of visible things, which men call history, 
was but an outward show, the hidden meaning of 
which had now been revealed as Jesus Christ. 

We have again the Epistle to the Colossians. 
Here the thought is of another type of popular 
religions, of which the characteristic word is pleroma, 
or "fullness." Based on the feeling of the awful 
distance between humanity and deity, such reli- 
gions essayed to "fill up" the gap with a graded 
hierarchy of "Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, 
Powers." Turning upon them their own word, 
the Epistle declares that in Jesus "dwelleth all the 
fullness of the Godhead bodily." Dominions and 
54 



ACT SECOND: THE NEW TESTAMENT 

Principalities are a mockery: Jesus Christ "fills 
up" the whole interval between man and God. 

All the while without respite is continuing the 
struggle against Judaizing Christianity, the founda- 
tion of which is insistence upon the rite of circumci- 
sion. When we reach the Epistle to the Philippians, 
another word " concision " is contemptuously applied 
to this Jewish rite; the word "circumcision" is 
spiritualized into a connection of the soul with 
Christ. 

In what is entitled "An Epistle to Hebrews," 
we find the most intensely Hebraic of Hebrews 
addressing his fellow Hebrews. He maintains, in 
close argument and sonorous eloquence, that the 
whole Mosaic law and priestly ceremonial was but 
a preparation for a higher covenant of which the 
mediator is Jesus Christ. The honored roll of 
Israel's worthies become a "cloud of witnesses" 
encompassing those who find in Jesus the author and 
finisher of their faith. 

The advancing religion has absorbed into itself 
55 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

and given new meaning to the popular religions, 
and the religion of Jewish law. Now comes a tribute 
from another quarter. The Epistle of James and 
the Gospel of Matthew, read in their correct literary 
structure, are found to be cast in the forms of wis- 
dom literature. In Matthew, so soon as the proc- 
lamation of the kingdom of heaven has sounded, 
there follows, expressed in a chain of maxims, the 
Sermon on the Mount, as it were the magna charta 
of this new kingdom of heaven. With the under- 
lying image of the winnowing fan, under operation 
of which the chaff is scattered and the wheat drawn 
closer together, the sections that follow alternate 
between this wheat and chaff, between the Church 
accepting and the hardening world rejecting the 
spiritual message. At its opening this alone of 
the four gospels mentions the visit of the Wise 
Men from the East to Jerusalem. When the close 
of its narration reaches what in other gospels is 
the mountain of the ascension, Matthew omits 
even to mention the ascension of Christ into heaven : 

56 



ACT SECOND: THE NEW TESTAMENT 

to its last word this is the gospel of the kingdom of 
God on earth. In all this we see wisdom literature 
paying its tribute to Jesus Christ. 

Wisdom is the philosophy of the Hebrews ; but a 
widely different Greek philosophy pervaded the 
age of the New Testament. Its favorite form was 
that of dialectic disputation. Among the subtlest 
of its questions was the haunting problem of the 
connection between Mind and Matter. Now, 
language is the most obvious medium by which the 
world of thought passes out into the external world ; 
hence the word had become a supreme symbol in 
Greek philosophy. The fourth gospel preserves 
one aspect of the life of Jesus absent from the other 
gospels: it exhibits Jesus in dialectic disputation 
with the Jews of Jerusalem. And the prologue to 
this gospel is an intricate philosophical argument, 
leading to the startling climax that the word has 
been made FLESH, and has dwelt visibly among 
men in the person of Jesus Christ. 



57 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

VII 

The whole course of the New Testament has been 
marked by advancing attempts to grasp the signifi- 
cance of Jesus Christ ; in the later books the thoughts 
presented have been such as strain the mind to 
comprehend and language to express. The separate 
elements in this conception of Jesus Christ are, by 
the final book of the New Testament, drawn to- 
gether into a fullness of illumination which makes 
the whole New Testament and the whole Bible a 
unity. 

Most unfortunately, no book in all literature has 
suffered so much from the vagaries of interpreters 
as this last book of the Bible. Historical scholars 
could without difficulty reckon up a hundred dif- 
ferent interpretations of this one book; a sure 
indication that something has gone wrong with 
the process of interpreting. Nor is the error far 
to seek. There has been a general tendency to leave 
out the literary factor of interpretation; this is 

58 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

only one of several factors, yet essential, for it is 
impossible to grasp the matter of a piece of litera- 
ture without first realizing the literary form. 

The title of the book is Revelation, though, by 
a curious perversity, it is popularly quoted as if 
in the plural — Revelations. The word has more 
than one meaning in Scripture ; are we to look for 
revelation of the future, as in the Book of Daniel, 
or revelation of types and symbols, as in the revela- 
tion to Moses in the Mount, or is there some third 
significance? The question is answered by the 
opening words of the book itself, which pronounce 
it The Revelation or Jesus Christ. It deals 
with the future only as it deals with the past or 
present. No doubt the wording of the book con- 
tains such phrases as "things which must shortly 
come to pass," or, "the time is at hand" ; but these 
phrases associate themselves with the fixed idea of 
the New Testament Church, and as such could 
only refer to an immediate future. So far as the 
primitive Christians looked for the second "com- 
59 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

ing of Christ" as close at hand, their expectation has 
been belied by the event. But when we turn to the 
other phrase in which they voice their hope — 
"the revelation of Jesus" — here we find it an- 
nounced in the book that closes the New Testament 
canon. Men had expected the Messiah to appear 
as a conquering warrior ; they found him in a babe 
at Bethlehem. The first Christians expected the 
revelation of Jesus in a shattered universe ; it was 
vouchsafed to them in an outpouring of prophecy. 
The content of the book is found to be a suc- 
cession of visions which pass like dissolving views 
before the eye of the imagination. Our imagina- 
tion must fully grasp these visions before the work 
of the interpreter can begin. Unfortunately, inter- 
pretations of the book are often offered us by 
persons whose powers of imagination are too feeble 
for anything more spiritual than arithmetic. What 
is a vision? The popular idea is of a sort of super- 
natural telescope, by which (for example) Ezekiel 
by the River Chebar could see exactly what was 
60 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

going on at the moment in Jerusalem; or John in 
the Isle of Patmos could scan events in the far future. 
This is entirely out of keeping with the use of the 
word in Scripture. In reality, the symbolism of 
the Bible is extremely simple. Its foundation is 
a peculiarity of prophetic discourses, which had 
their starting point, not like modern discourses 
in a verbal "text," but in some piece of emblematic 
or other visible action — Ezekiel seen joining to- 
gether the broken pieces of a stick, Jeremiah wearing 
in the streets of Jerusalem the wooden collar of 
slavery. When the emblematic action, instead of 
being performed by the prophet, is supernaturally 
presented to him, we have a vision in the Biblical 
sense of the word. 

There is another consideration. Here we have 
an elaborate poem built up out of symbolic details. 
On examination, no one of these symbolic details 
is new; they are all echoes of Old Testament 
symbolism. We recognize the important principle 
of literary echoing, which pervaded poetry from 
61 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

the age of Homer to the age of Milton, though it 
is almost entirely lacking in the literature of modern 
times. But nowhere is this literary echoing more 
significant than in this Book of Revelation, where 
it is a tribute to the supreme sacredness of the 
theme. The author will not use a single symbol 
which has not been sanctified by association with 
ancient scripture. The reader then must not seek 
to interpret what seems symbolic by ingenuity or 
guesswork; he must turn to the Old Testament, 
and be prepared to see an old thought in a new 
adaptation. 

The meaning of this Book of Revelation ceases 
to be perplexing when, instead of an exegesis that 
wanders among symbolic details, we seek an inter- 
pretation of perspective, which surveys the book 
as a whole, and notes how its parts hang together. 
But even here it is possible to go astray. In modern 
literature we are accustomed to look for some 
climax or catastrophe coming near the end of a 
poem. In a broader survey of literature, and 
62 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

especially in the Bible, there is another type of 
poetic movement which has its turning point in 
the very center of the poem. This type of poetic 
movement has been beautifully compared to the 
figure of an arch — a most helpful suggestion. 
For, in the figure of the arch, not only is the turn- 
ing point in the center, but this central turning 
point is also the foundation of the whole, the key- 
stone of the arch. Moreover, the principle of 
symmetry comes in: for everything we find on 
the one side of the turning point we may expect a 
point of correspondence on the other side. This 
is not a mere matter of artistic beauty: such 
symmetry is a key to interpretation. In the 
present case, traditional interpretation, with its 
prepossession for revelation of the future, concen- 
trates attention on the concluding chapters of 
Revelation as a storehouse of eschatological secrets. 
Meanwhile the real climax of the poem, to which 
all the rest is only accessory, it has passed over as 
a detail at the center. 

63 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

The literary form, then, of the book may be thus 
summed up. Between a Prologue of the Words 
to the Seven Churches, and an Epilogue of the 
Seven Last Words, we have a succession of Seven 
Visions passing like dissolving views before the 
imagination ; these Visions are built up of symbols, 
all echoing the symbolism of the Old Testament; 
and the master thought which binds the whole into 
a unity is to be looked for at the center and not at 
the close. 

As we pass from the Prologue to the First Vision, 
heaven opens : all that belongs to time or space has 
disappeared. What Ezekiel had seen as a vision 
of movement is here beheld in the eternal splendor 
of repose: the Throne of Deity, rising out of the 
crystalline sea, he that sits thereon lost in the light 
of his own glory, rainbow-fringed. Around are 
the thrones of lesser powers: Elders around the 
Ancient of Days. Powers of Nature are added : 
thunders and lightnings and voices proceeding out 
of the throne. Where Ezekiel's vision of move- 

64 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

ment had given us wheels within wheels mystically 
moving, in this vision of repose we have the seven 
lamps of fire burning, spiritually linking every part 
of the universe with the central throne. Powers 
of life are added : eyes that flash, wings that wave, 
forms that distinguish. And all blends in an un- 
ceasing Holy, Holy, Holy, adoration of Being that 
was, and is, and is to come. 

But the vision becomes modified to the eye of 
the seer. In the hand of him that sits upon the 
throne is seen a Book. It is a sealed Book. It is 
a Book sealed with Seven Seals. With the in- 
tensity of dream emotion the seer weeps that no 
one is worthy to open the book and loose the seals. 
A voice of comfort is heard proclaiming that the 
Lion of the tribe of Judah hath overcome to open 
the book and loose the seals. While this echo from 
the Blessing on the Tribes is yet in our ears, lo, a 
great surprise: no Lion, but a Lamb standing as 
though it had been slain. Associations begin to 
gather from the Isaiahan rhapsody, of one led as a 
F 65 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

lamb to the slaughter, sheep before shearers dumb ; 
associations from John the Baptist's Lamb of God 
that taketh away the sins of the world. When to 
the Lamb is transferred the Book of mystery, all 
heaven's adoration is transferred with it; the 
sevenfold adoration is heard of power and wisdom 
and riches and might and honor and glory and 
blessing. And there is a new symbol, golden bowls 
full of incense rising, interpreted in the vision itself 
as the prayers of the saints, not seen until the Lamb 
has become the center of view. As this incense 
rises and fills the whole scene, the First Vision 
begins to dissolve, and dissolves away; leaving on 
the memory two thoughts — the Book sealed with 
Seven Seals, and the Lamb standing as though it 
had been slain. Against a background of eternity 
is seen the Mystery of Time, as a Book sealed with 
Seven Seals; over against it is the symbol of that 
by which the mystery will be unfolded, the Lamb 
standing as though it had been slain. 
And now the Second Vision begins to loom upon 
66 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

the eye of the imagination, and we reach the idea 
of Judgment, the Scriptural expression for divine 
providence. But the second vision is Judgment 
Potential: powers of judgment pass before us, but 
are not as yet seen in their sphere of operation. 
The symbolism is a blending of Jeremiah and 
Zechariah. Jeremiah had sung of a fourfold woe: 
captivity, and the sword, and famine, and death. 
Zechariah's vision had shown horses — red, sorrel, 
and white — spirits of ministration coursing through 
the earth to carry into execution what Jehovah 
should ordain for his people. Now the two symbols 
blend, and there is meaning in the colors of the 
horses. As the First Seal is opened, there passes 
the White Horse ; he that sits on it has the bow that 
taketh captive. As the Second Seal is opened, 
there passes the Red Horse ; its rider has the sword 
of war. As the Third Seal is opened, there passes 
the Black Horse; and its rider holds in his hand a 
balance, which the prophecies of Ezekiel have ac- 
customed us to connect with the careful weighing 

6 7 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

of food in famine. With the opening of the Fourth 
Seal, there passes the Pale Horse of Death. When 
the Fifth Seal is opened, precisely as in the Vision 
of Zechariah, the souls of the martyred beneath the 
altar raise their cry of Lord, How Long? When 
the Sixth Seal is opened, from all over the field of 
prophecy are gathered just those symbols which 
tell of immediate doom. As in Joel, the sun be- 
comes of the color of sackcloth and the moon of 
blood; with an echo from Nahum, the stars drop 
from heaven as a shaken fig tree casting its figs; 
as in Isaiah, the sky rolls up as a scroll, mountains 
and islands move out of their places, kings of earth 
and bondmen and freemen hide themselves in caves 
and rocks; as in Hosea, men are heard crying to 
the mountains and the rocks to fall on them and 
hide them. But there is a sudden restraining. Pre- 
cisely as in Ezekiel's vision of Jerusalem, when 
slaughter was that moment to be unloosed, it was 
checked until one appearing like a writer with his 
inkhorn should note the faithful to be spared, so 
68 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

here we have a momentary glimpse of the four 
winds of heaven held back that they blow not on 
the earth until the saints of God have been sealed 
on their foreheads. In ordered ritual we have the 
sealing of the successive tribes of Israel, and then a 
great surprise : the vast multitude that no man can 
number, out of every nation and kindred and tribe, 
arrayed in white robes with palms of victory in 
their hands. Then only may the Seventh Seal 
be opened : there falls upon the scene a great silence. 
It is the silence of expectation: for the Second 
Vision is dissolving and fading away; the Second 
Vision, like the First, pointing onwards to the 
consummation in the center of the poem. 

The Third Vision breaks, and judgment begins 
to move forward. But at every point it is checked : 
this Third Vision is Judgment Imperfect. The 
symbolism is that of the Seven Angels with their 
trumpets : mystic trumpets like those before which 
the walls of Jericho fell flat, trumpet tones such as 
those that open a prophetic Day of Judgment. 

6 9 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

Hitherto judgment has taken the forms of ordinary 
life — captivity, famine, war : we now pass into 
the region of miracle. As the First Angel sounds, 
the Plagues of Egypt appear intensified; hail and 
fire mingled with blood are cast from heaven upon 
the earth: yet only a third part of the earth is 
burnt up. As the Second and Third Angels sound, 
we have passed from wonders of the Law to wonders 
of the Prophets; ideas of Jeremiah appear, the 
burning mountain cast into the sea, the star worm- 
wood cast upon rivers and fountains; yet but a 
third part of creatures in the sea and in the rivers 
perish. When the Fourth Angel sounds, Isaiah's 
miracle is reversed ; yet it^is but a third part of the 
light of sun and moon and stars which is darkened. 
Four times judgment has descended from on high. 
With the sounding of the Fifth Angel, judgment 
breaks out from beneath: the abyss opens like a 
furnace rolling out its clouds of smoke, like the 
locust cloud of Joel, yet a destructive power limited 
in that it may torment but may not kill. As the 
7o 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

Sixth Angel sounds, judgment appears at Euphrates, 
mystic center of the earth, and spreads to the four 
quarters of heaven; all powers of destruction seem 
massed together, and yet it is but a third part of 
what is left in the earth that may be destroyed. 

But will there not be an end of all this restrain- 
ing when yet another Angel is seen, sphered in the 
clouds, crowned with the rainbow, one foot upon 
the sea and one foot upon the earth ; when he speaks, 
not seven trumpets, but the seven thunders utter 
their voices? There comes a restraining of an- 
other kind : the seer is bidden to seal up and write 
not what the seven thunders utter. The sense of 
restraint is the keener, because already this Angel 
has been seen to lift up his hand to heaven and 
swear by him that liveth forever that when the 
Seventh Angel has sounded there shall be finished 
the mystery spoken as gospel to the prophets. 
Yet something of significance comes to us; for, 
with an echo from Ezekiel, the seer becomes him- 
self a part of the vision, and receives from the 

7i 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

Angel the little book, so sweet in the mouth, so 
bitter when swallowed. He must himself pour 
forth prophetic utterances: mysterious, yet each 
word an echo of what is familiar. They echo the 
measuring wand of Ezekiel, and the sons of oil of 
Zechariah ; they tell of power, like Elijah's, to shut 
the heaven that it rain not for a period, power, like 
that of Moses, to plague the earth and turn the 
river into blood; they hint of the Jerusalem that 
killeth the prophets; of dry bones, as in Ezekiel's 
vision, and how breath from God enters them and 
the dead stand upon their feet. It is as our mind 
is laboring with these prophetic utterances, wrapped 
in mystery and imperfection, that the long ex- 
pected Seventh Angel sounds with his trumpet, 
and all heaven bursts into the shout that brings the 
consummation towards which all has been working : 

The kingdom of the World is become 
The kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ : 
And He shall reign forever and ever. 

The Mystery of Prophecy is unsealed in Christ ! 

72 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

We thus reach the Central Vision, the keystone 
of the arch. As a Vision of Salvation it towers 
above the other Visions of Judgment. And its 
theme is, the Kingdom of the World becoming the 
Kingdom of Christ. 

It must pass through its seven phases. In the 
first phase we have the " woman with child " of Isaiah, 
and the Serpent of Genesis waiting to devour that 
which should be born of the woman: thus is sym- 
bolized the origin of the contest between the 
Kingdom of the World and the Kingdom of Christ. 
In the second phase it is a contest in heaven: 
Michael and his angels warring against the Dragon 
and his angels. In the third phase it is a contest 
on earth : the Dragon making war upon the woman 
that gave birth to the child: this is enshrined in 
the primitive symbolism of all poetry, familiar from 
Job and Isaiah, the conflict of the water and the 
earth. In the fourth phase we see beast-like forms, 
tempting in their detailed suggestiveness, but it is 
enough that they symbolize brute force arrayed 
73 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

against the Kingdom of Christ. The beast-like 
form of the fifth phase has "horns like a lamb": 
as if the symbolism of the two sides of the contest 
had become entangled, the dreadful thought of 
holiness on both sides of the conflict. In the sixth 
phase we see the followers of the Lamb arrayed 
for war, singing the song that none can learn but 
themselves; at a distance it is as the sound of 
thunder, close at hand it is sweet as harpers harp- 
ing with their harps. The seventh phase brings 
the white cloud of judgment, and he that sits on 
it is like unto a son of man. The sickle of Joel's 
vision marks the ripe time for harvest; with an 
echo from Isaiah, the vintage of this harvest will 
be cast into the winepress of the wrath of God. 
The glassy sea glows with the fire of victory, and 
the whole culminates in the Song of Moses and 
the Lamb : song of Moses, first salvation of the 
people of God by the Red Sea, the song of the 
Lamb, the final salvation of all. 

But all that is left imperfect must be brought 
74 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

to completion, now that the key to all mystery has 
been unveiled. There is a Fifth Vision that bal- 
ances the Third. The Third Vision had been 
Judgment Imperfect; the Fifth Vision is Judg- 
ment Consummated. For symbolism the Third 
Vision had the Seven Angels with their trumpets; 
in the Fifth Vision we have Seven Angels with 
their golden Bowls — the "Cup of the Lord's 
Fury," reserved in prophecy for dooms spoken 
against the enemies of God's people. As before, 
we have judgment poured out on earth, on sea, 
on rivers and fountains, on the sun, on the throne 
of the beast beneath, on Euphrates. The whole 
culminates in the long-drawn Mystery of Babylon; 
judgment poured out upon the actual Babylon of 
Jewish history, on Tyre, on a city seated on seven 
hills : we catch the thought that every city setting 
itself against the kingdom of Christ is included in 
this Mystery of Babylon. So the Sixth Vision 
supplements the Second : that was Judgment Po- 
tential, this is Judgment Enthroned. For the 
75 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

many horses of the Second Vision we hear now of 
but one horse, for he that rides on it is called Word 
of God, King of Kings and Lord of Lords : he hath 
another name which none knoweth but himself. 
The end of this Sixth Vision displays the thrones of 
judgment which once Daniel had seen; the dead, 
great and small, stand to be judged. Finally, 
death and Hades are cast into the fire of destruction. 
The first Vision had given us the eternal repose 
of Deity, before the slightest ripple of mystery — 
mystery that craves solution — had come to dis- 
turb. The Seventh Vision gives us the peace that 
is on the other side of judgment. We see a new 
heaven and a new earth ; a New Jerusalem adorned 
as a bride. From Ezekiel comes once more the 
measuring wand for marking out the fair propor- 
tions of God's commonwealth on earth; from the 
Isaiahan rhapsody come further touches of beauty — 
pavement of transparent gold, foundations of 
precious stones. We go back to the Book of Ezekiel 
for the river of the water of life flowing from the 

7 6 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

throne to purify the streets of the city. And there 
is one symbol more. The first symbol of Genesis 
becomes the last symbol of Revelation — the 
Tree of Life, lost from Eden, reappearing beside 
the water of life, with leaves for the healing of the 
nations. 

The procession of symbolic wonders, oppressing 
the imagination as they pass, these are not the 
revelation itself, but the poetic movement that 
makes a climax of the revelation when it comes in 
clear unfigurative language. This is not the first 
time that such movement of thought has appeared 
in Scripture. When Elijah at Horeb is awaiting 
what is to him a supreme revelation, it is written 
that a great wind rent the rocks and tore them in 
pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in 
the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but 
the Lord was not in the earthquake, and after the 
earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire ; 
and after the fire a still, small voice, and in this 
voice the divine message was heard. So here, 
77 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

forms of mystery • advance, and raise our expecta- 
tions, but they retreat : yet higher mysteries ad- 
vance and excite our expectations the more, yet 
these again retreat. At last we hear, no longer a 
still small voice, but the shout of all heaven's hosts, 
bringing as final consummation the full Revelation 
of Jesus Christ. 

To this climax has the whole movement of the 
Bible, with its divine philosophy of things, been 
steadily advancing. The Bible is not history, it is 
not ethics, it is not theology, although it is a fountain 
from which all these may draw inspiration. These 
things divide men into specialists; in the sphere 
of the spiritual all are one. Who defines God 
denies him, cried Spinoza. But the Bible has no 
formula for God. It is concerned with the spiritual 
intimacy between man and God; an intimacy 
open to all varieties of men, in all ages and in all 
climes. At the beginning a Friend of God sets out 
to bring to his God the rest of the world; his de- 
scendants make a nation, with the sublime ideal of 

78 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

a national theocracy ; but even a national theocracy 
must give way before a kingdom in the hearts of 
men. The first thought is of conquest : before the 
Old Testament is complete it is seen as a conquest 
that knows no force, that works by the agency of 
the light, by the compelling power of vicarious 
suffering. The Golden Age to come inflames 
our hopes ; the purging Judgment forever at work 
keeps us from slipping into a truce with evil. A 
sure foundation is Righteousness; but it is 
Righteousness that is linked with Love; both 
unite in the supreme ideal of Redemption that 
brings evil itself to good. Even Law is but a 
transition stage to a Liberty in which Law is lost 
in its own inspiration. Where a world has bowed 
down before external forces — of Destiny that crushes 
men's spirits, or Fortune that mocks them — the 
Bible knows of only one supreme power in the 
universe; in its highest conception of Personality, 
a conception forever enlarging, it frames its God; 
in personality alone is immortality. When the 
79 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

New Testament is reached, all lines meet in Jesus 
Christ. The Master becomes a King; the link 
between the King and his followers is the Cross. 
To be witnesses to this message of gladness is the 
mission of the Church, through the ages, to the 
uttermost part of the earth. Apart from this, the 
whole course of things is but the outward show of 
a Mystery with the hidden truth unrevealed. 
Finally, all powers of imagination are strained to 
frame an exaltation — a kingship above all kings, 
a lordship above all lords: but this exaltation is 
for the Redeemer of the world. 

This sublime poem, which thus closes the canon 
of the New Testament, also brings home to our 
minds the question what, from the standpoint of 
literature, we are to think of the Bible as a whole. 
This library of some seventy books, by different 
writers, in different languages, in every variety of 
literary form — is it only the enterprise of printers 
which has bound its separate books into a single 
volume? Or is this merely a reading list, the 
80 



EPILOGUE: THE BOOK OF REVELATION 

seventy best books of the churches? Or are we 
to look for an inner and spiritual unity? It seems 
to be the mission of the final book of the canon to 
make this unity with its thought that "the testi- 
mony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." From 
all over the field of prophecy, which is spiritual 
poetry, are gathered gems of symbolism to make a 
crown for the consummation of prophecy. All 
history, past, present and to come, sums up as the 
Kingdom of the World becoming the Kingdom of 
Christ. 



81 



APPENDIX 
HOW TO READ THE BIBLE 



APPENDIX 

Whatever other uses men may wish to make of 
the Bible, our first and paramount duty is to read 

IT. 

This may sound like a mere truism. But in 
fact, the straightforward reading of the Bible has 
been made a very difficult thing owing to an acci- 
dent that happened to the sacred scriptures during 
their transmission through the centuries. Many 
readers of the Bible seem unaware of this accident ; 
scholars, who cannot but know the fact, are too 
intent upon their special questions to give the fact 
its proper emphasis. 

How current versions misrepresent the Bible 

It is a matter connected with the nature of ancient 
manuscripts. All manuscripts, in all languages, 
older than about the first or second century of the 
Christian era, were entirely lacking in literary 
"form." By such "form" is meant distinctions 
of prose and verse, of dialogue and narrative, of 
sentences, paragraphs and the like. A page of an 
ancient manuscript shows nothing but alphabetical 
letters, not divided into words, still less into sentences 
with punctuation ; no names of speakers in dialogue 
appear, nor is there any division of the speeches; 
there is no distinction of lines in verse, still less of 

85 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

Passage of Scripture 
as it would appear in an Ancient Manuscript 

THEVOICEOFHIMTHATCRIETHINTHEWILDE 
RNESSPREPAREYETHEWAYOFTHELORDMAKE 
STRAIGHTINTHEDESERTAHIGHWAYFOROU 
RGODEVERYVALLEYSHALLBEEXALTEDAND 
EVERYMOUNTAINANDHILLSHALLBEMADEL 
OWANDTHECROOKEDSHALLBEMADESTRAIG 
HTANDTHEROUGH PLACES PL AINANDTHEGL 
ORYOFTHELORDSHALLBEREVEALEDANDAL 
LFLESHSHALLSEEITTOGETHERFORTHEMO 
UTHOFTHELORDHATHSPOKENITTHEVOICE 
SAIDCRYANDHESAIDWHATSHALLICRYALL 
FLESHISGRASSANDALLTHEGOODLINESST 
HEREOFISASTHEFLOWEROFTHEFIELDTHE 
GRASSWITHERETHTHEFLOWERFADETHBEC 
AUSETHESPIRITOFTHELORDBLOWETHUP 
ONITSURELYTHEPEOPLEISGRASSTHEGR 
ASSWITHERETHTHEFLOWERFADETHBUTT 
HEWORDOFOURGODSHALLSTANDFOREVER 



86 



APPENDIX 

Passage of Scripture 
as it would appear in full literary structure 

[Voices carry on the tidings across the desert to Jerusalem] 

A VOICE OF ONE CRYING 

Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of the LORD, 

Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 
Every valley shall be exalted, 

And every mountain and hill shall be made low : 
And the crooked shall be made straight, 

And the rough places plain : 
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, 

And all flesh shall see it together : 
For the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. 

A second voice (in the distance) 
Cry! 

A despairing voice 

What shall I cry? 
All flesh is grass 
And all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field : 

The grass withereth, 

The flower fadeth, 

Because the breath of the LORD bloweth upon it : 
Surely the people is grass ! 

THE SECOND VOICE 

The grass withereth, 
The flower fadeth : 
But the word of our God shall stand for ever. 

87 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

anything like stanzas. If the reader will look at 
page 86 he will see a familiar passage of Scripture 
in the form in which it would appear in such a manu- 
script, the language being changed to English. On 
the opposite page he will see the same passage with 
its literary form and structure restored in the way 
which is taken for granted in the case of any modern 
book, or of ancient literature intended for modern 
readers. 

What has been said applies to all ancient litera- 
ture ; the poems of Homer, or the Greek tragedies, 
were preserved in this kind of manuscript. But a 
difference arises. All other ancient literature was 
in the hands of literary men, who in spite of the 
manuscripts were keenly sensitive to literary form. 
Accordingly, when the advance in manuscripts 
came which enabled the page to reflect the form, 
these literary men gave to what they were preserv- 
ing its true form ; Homer came out as epic poetry, 
Sophocles as dramatic dialogue. But at the corre- 
sponding period the Bible was in the hands of 
scribes and rabbis who were not literary men but 
commentators. They scrupulously preserved the 
words of Scripture, but had no interest in literary 
form; their idea of Scripture was that of material 
for commentary, each clause being made the sub- 
ject of lengthy discussions. Accordingly, when 

88 



APPENDIX 

the advance in writing reached these commentators, 
the form they gave to Scripture was that of Texts 
for comment. These "texts" were mechanically 
numbered for convenience of references, and col- 
lected in convenient " chapters." In this form of 
mechanically numbered chapters and verses the 
Bible is circulated in modern times ; and the great 
mass of Bible readers only think of it as in chapters 
and verses. 

Such versions unconsciously misrepresent the 
real Bible. It is a double misrepresentation. As so 
read, there is an absence of the forms of dialogue 
or narrative, prose or verse, which belong to all 
other literature. On the other hand, there is the 
form of chapters and verses mechanically numbered, 
which is no part of the Bible, but was the creation 
of medieval commentators. It is this distortion 
which makes the main obstacle to intelligent read- 
ing of the Bible. 

Form in literature essential to meaning 

I am aware that to many readers of the Bible 
what has been stated will appear a thing of no 
importance. They will say that they are willing 
to leave to experts what concerns literary form: 
their concern is with the matter and spirit of Scrip- 

8 9 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

ture. They overlook a foundation principle of 
all literature, that its external form must be realized 
before we can catch its meaning and spirit. Such 
an attitude of mind would be impossible but for the 
fact that the modern printed page presents the liter- 
ary structure so clearly and automatically that the 
reader is never called upon to think about the form ; 
it acts upon him as unconsciously as the attraction 
of gravitation. It is where this structure of the 
printed page is lacking that we can see how closely 
external form affects meaning. 

To illustrate. 1 i. Suppose a simple untutored 
reader of Scripture is following a chapter of the Bible 
as a devotional exercise. It happens to be a chapter 
in the Book of Job, continuation of a previous 
chapter which had commenced with the statement, 
"Then answered Bildad the Shuhite." What he 
is reading, then, is the words of a certain Bildad. 
Now, at the end of the Book of Job God is repre- 
sented as saying that the three Friends of Job — 
Bildad and the other two — have not said of him 
the thing that is right. Thus our reader is seeking 
to bring home to his soul as a divine message the 
words of a speaker whom God expressly repudiates. 

1 This, and the pages immediately following, are a condensation 
of a fuller discussion in Chapter III of my Modern Study of Litera- 
ture [published by Chicago University Press]. 

9 



APPENDIX 

The mistake has arisen from the reader's overlook- 
ing the dramatic form of this Book of Job. Passages 
read out of a drama do not give the sentiments 
of the dramatist, but only such sentiments as are 
appropriate to the character in the drama who speaks 
the words, — not the sentiments of Shakespeare, 
but of Othello or Hamlet or Iago. Thus the devo- 
tional exercise has gone wrong — devotionally 
wrong — through overlooking the dramatic form. 

2. Take next a very different case. A 
learned historian is studying the Book of Micah, 
that part of it which in our versions stands as the 
last two chapters. As he reads, he notices a sudden 
change in the spirit of what is said : up to a certain 
point all has been woe and trouble, from that point 
there is only joy and confidence. Intent on histori- 
cal considerations, he is led to the idea that this 
latter part must be an " interpolation " in the Book 
of Micah from some later age. As one such histo- 
rian phrases it, " between verses 6 and 7 [of chapter 
7] there yawns a century." Had this historian 
given attention to the literary form of what he was 
reading, he would have seen that what " yawns" 
between the two verses is nothing more than a 
change of speakers in the dramatic dialogue. All 
this portion of Micah is introduced by a title (verse 
9 of chapter 6) which announces a dialogue between 

9i 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

God, the City and the Man of Wisdom. This is 
exactly carried out : the Divine denunciation con- 
tinues to the end of the sixth chapter ; at the open- 
ing of the seventh the Despairing City speaks; 
at the point in question we have the Man of Wisdom 
voicing his confidence in the God who has inter- 
posed on his behalf. Thus we see a learned historian 
can go wrong in his history, as we saw a simple 
reader go wrong in his devotions, all through over- 
looking a point of literary form — dramatic dialogue. 
3. It must not be supposed that it is only broad 
literary differences, such as that between drama 
and other literature, which are the source of mis- 
readings. A minute mistake as to the literary 
structure of a passage may lead us astray as to its 
whole meaning. Let the reader turn again to the 
passage of Isaiah presented on page 87. This 
passage has been admirably set to music by a 
noted composer. The composer has seen, rightly, 
that two different voices are answering one an- 
other. But he has divided the voices wrongly. 
Thus, in the musical setting, the Bass says, Cry; 
the Soprano answers, What shall I cry? the Bass 
says, All flesh is grass ; the Soprano obediently 
echoes, All flesh is grass. The Bass goes on, And all 
the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field ; 
the Soprano repeats these words ; and so on. The 

92 



APPENDIX 

composer has understood two voices of which the 
one echoes the other ; a different division of the lines 
(see page 87) makes two contrasting voices, the 
Voice of the Tidings and a Voice of Despair. Thus 
the meaning of a passage has been exactly reversed 
by so small an error in literary structure as a wrong 
division of lines. 

4. Few parts of Scripture are more fundamen- 
tally misunderstood than the Book of Ecclesiastes. 
This arises from the fact that almost every one 
reads into it the morbid pessimism of Solomon its 
reputed author. If a student of history makes 
the objection that the book is later than Solomon's 
age by centuries, the ordinary reader has an answer 
which at first seems plausible; viz. that the book 
itself claims Solomon as author, in the words, "I 
the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem." 
Thus a critical deadlock arises : but only because 
both parties to the discussion have ignored the liter- 
ary form of this Book of Ecclesiastes. On analysis 
it is found to be a series of Five Essays, the space 
between the Essays filled in with proverbs and 
miscellaneous sayings, and the whole bound into 
a unity by a Prologue and Epilogue. With the 
correct form before us we may inquire, Does this 
book claim the authorship of Solomon? We turn 
first to the Prologue and Epilogue, as the natural 

93 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

place in which to find light on the question of author- 
ship: we discover in this Prologue and Epilogue 
no suggestion as to Solomon or any other author. 
The same applies to the miscellaneous proverbs, 
and to four out of the five Essays. All connection 
with Solomon is confined to the First Essay; and 
this, on examination, proves to be a narration of 
an imaginary experiment to test different types of 
life; the experiment is put into the mouth of the 
historical personage best fitted to make it, and told 
in the first person. When the supposed experi- 
ment is concluded, the first person is dropped, and 
there is no further connection with Solomon. When 
the book is read in its literary form, it is clear that 
Solomon is not made the author of the book, but the 
hero of one incident narrated. The critical dead- 
lock ceases, for there is now nothing to set against 
the late historic date claimed for this work; when 
read with unbiased mind it seems written in a very 
different spirit from that of Solomon. 

Recovery of literary form in the Bible 

The recovery of the literary form of the Bible, 
obscured by the medieval presentation in chapters 
and verses, has been a slow process. When King 
James's Version was made, the wisest scholar in 

94 



APPENDIX 

England had no idea that there was such a thing 
as poetic verse in Scripture. The principle of verse 
in Hebrew had been lost for centuries, and was re- 
discovered by an English bishop more than a cen- 
tury after King James's Version was completed. 
The early translators, like all others of their time, 
thought of the Bible as a collection of " sayings"; 
they used scholarship and literary taste to make 
each "saying" as beautiful as it could be made. 
The Bible in their hands may be compared to a 
chaplet of pearls with the string broken. Later 
scholarship, without losing the beauty of the pearls, 
has tied the string of connectedness that makes 
"sayings" into paragraphs, poems, books. A 
good illustration of this restored connectedness 
may be appreciated by the reader if he compares 
the twenty-eighth chapter of Job in the King James 
Version and in the Revised Version. 

The King James Version 

i. Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place 
for gold where they fine it. 

2. Iron is taken out of the earth, and brass is 

molten out of the stone. 

3. He setteth an end to darkness, and searcheth 

out all perfection : the stones of darkness and 
the shadow of death. 

95 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

4. The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant ; 

even the waters forgotten of the foot : they 
are dried up, they are gone away from 
men. 

5. As for the earth, out of it cometh bread; and 

under it is turned up as it were fire. 

6. The stones of it are the place of sapphires ; and 

it hath dust of gold. 

7. There is a path which no fowl knoweth, and 

which the vulture's eye hath not seen : 

8. The lion's whelps have not trodden it, nor the 

fierce lion passed by it. 

9. He putteth forth his hand upon the rock; he 

overturneth the mountains by the roots. 

10. He cutteth out rivers among the rocks ; and his 

eye seeth every precious thing. 

11. He bindeth the floods from overflowing; and 

the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to 
light. 

The Revised Version 

Surely there is a mine for silver, 

And a place for gold which they refine. 

Iron is taken out of the earth, 

And brass is molten out of the stone. 

Man setteth an end to darkness, 

And searcheth out to the furthest bound 

96 



APPENDIX 

The stones of thick darkness and of the shadow of 

death. 
He breaketh open a shaft away from where men 

sojourn ; 
They are forgotten of the foot that passeth by ; 
They hang afar from men, they swing to and fro. 
As for the earth, out of it cometh bread ; 
And underneath it is turned up as it were by fire. 
The stones of it are the place of sapphires, 
And it hath dust of gold. 
That path no bird of prey knoweth, 
Neither hath the falcon's eye seen it ; 
The proud beasts have not trodden it, 
Nor hath the fierce lion passed thereby. 
He putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock ; 
He overturneth the mountains by the roots. 
He cutteth out passages among the rocks ; 
And his eye seeth every precious thing. 
He bindeth the streams that they trickle not ; 
And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light. 

In King James's Version, the passage reads as 
a series of disjointed texts, or sayings, often obscure, 
and apparently dealing with separate topics, such 
as God or Nature. In the other version the whole 
comes out as a clear unity — a brilliant picture of the 
miner breaking open a shaft and exploring the depths 

H 97 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

of the earth. Indeed, the whole chapter (Job xxviii) 
can now be seen as a single thought : There are 
mines out of which men dig gold and silver, but where 
is the mine out of which we may dig wisdom? 

But the Revised Version went only a little way 
towards restoring the full literary form and structure 
of the Bible. There is a recognition of verse and 
prose. But the Revisers left to a later generation 
the task of representing each portion of Scripture 
in its full literary form; whether story, or history, 
or dialogue, or lyric verse, or essay, or philosophic 
discourse. 

One such restoration of literary form to Scripture 
is "The Modern Reader's Bible." (See page 136.) 
By aid of internal evidence, and in the light of 
literature as a whole, it presents to the eye each 
part of the Bible in its proper literary form and 
detailed structure; doing thus for the sacred 
Scriptures what, as a matter of course, is done for 
all other literature, ancient or modern, by the ar- 
rangement of the printed page. 

It may be well to particularize some of the more 
obvious differences that such literary structure 
involves. 1. Very large portions of the Old Testa- 
ment are made up of legal and statistical documents, 
dry and hard to follow, and interrupting the con- 
tinuity of the history. Yet these have their proper 

98 



APPENDIX 

place in Scripture; but they would, in a modern 
book, appear as appendices and footnotes. By a 
special arrangement of type it is possible, without 
altering or removing them, to present them as 
appendices and footnotes. They are in their places 
for all who want them, but they cease to distract 
from the general drift of the Bible. 2. Considerable 
portions of the prophetic books are in dialogue, 
the speakers having to be inferred from the context. 
The division of speeches, and the speakers, are 
indicated. In addition to this, often some action 
is implied as accompanying the dialogue, such as 
(in a drama intended for acting) would be made 
stage directions. 

3. It is hardly necessary to say how much of poetic 
beauty depends upon delicate variations of verse. 
The verse system of Scripture, though it rests on a 
basis different from that of modern meter, yet has 
all the variety and refinement of English or Greek 
verse. It is easy to indicate such varieties to the 
eye, when once they have been ascertained. 

4. A considerable portion of Scripture has the 
form of essays and brief Lyrics. Now. the soul of 
an essay or short lyric is its title, which of course 
expresses the unity of the thought. Ancient manu- 
scripts lacked such titles; by careful study it is 
possible to supply them. 

99 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

5. Whenever a book is of considerable length, 
it becomes of high importance to indicate clearly its 
proper divisions and sections. On such arrange- 
ment clearness of understanding largely depends. 

I speak of the Modern Reader's Bible because, so 
far as I know, this is the only case in which struc- 
tural presentation has been applied to Scripture as 
a whole. Of course, every modern commentator, 
in citing lengthy passages of the Bible, will present 
them with more or less of literary form. The 
execution of the task attempted in the Modern 
Reader's Bible is always open to criticism and re- 
vision, until (we may hope) the authoritative ver- 
sions of the Bible, whatever translation they use, 
will arrange that translation in clear literary struc- 
ture. Those who do their Bible reading in the 
medieval form of chapters and verses are taking 
the responsibility of placing themselves in the most 
disadvantageous position possible for catching the 
meaning and force of Scripture. 

It is not without experience that I make these 
remarks. For the last twenty-five years a consid- 
erable part of my personal work has been with 
classes, in and out of the university, who are study- 
ing the Bible in English. During the greater part 
of this period, I found that practically the whole 
time of an extended course of study was occupied 

100 



APPENDIX 

with getting at the surface meaning of what was 
read, with no opportunity left for other treatment. 
During the last ten years it has been possible to 
put in the hands of students the Bible in its full 
literary structure. I have found that these later 
classes were able to start at the point where their 
predecessors left off. Nothing in my whole life 
as a teacher has been more satisfactory than the 
way intelligent students seize the point of a literary 
presentation of Scripture. Many scores of such 
students have volunteered the remark that this had 
altered their whole attitude to Bible reading ; what 
they had discontinued as a dreary duty they had 
resumed, and found no less attractive than the best 
of literature ancient or modern. 

I do not overlook the fact that other kinds of as- 
sistance to Bible study abound, of the utmost variety 
and copiousness. These have intrinsic value. But 
where the question is of straightforward reading 
of the Bible, the very superabundance of these 
helps threatens to make them a hindrance. Anno- 
tation is interruption. References, and cross-refer- 
ences, and other similar devices, interpose so much 
the more delay between the beginning and the end 
of a sentence or a book of Scripture, and dilute the 
force of connection. The place for such aids to 
Bible study is that of books of reference. No 

IOI 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

book of reference is more indispensable than a 
dictionary ; but a man would find himself in a bad 
way if he sought to use a dictionary as a guide to 
a literary classic. 

Reading particular books of the Bible 

Our first impression of the Bible is that it is a 
library, containing literary works of great variety. 
Just as in other literature a man may wish to read 
Tennyson, or Browning, or Sophocles, so in the 
Bible he may choose to read Job, or Isaiah, or Reve- 
lation. For reading of this kind the main requisite 
is the text of the book in its proper literary struc- 
ture. In addition to this the Modern Reader's 
Bible offers for each book a literary introduction 
and notes ; but these are of secondary importance. 
Indeed, large part of the difficulties to explain which 
notes are written vanish when the book is read in 
its correct literary structure. 

Here, however, a point arises which may be 
expressed by the phrase A Book at a Sitting. In 
technical language this is represented by the differ- 
ence between the Interpretation of Exegesis and 
the Interpretation of Perspective. Exegesis is a 
mode of interpretation which follows successively 
all the details of a book, bringing light from various 

102 



APPENDIX 

sources to bear upon each, with a sure confidence 
that when all the details of a work have been ex- 
plained the whole book has been mastered. But 
this confidence is often fallacious. In the case of 
the higher literary forms the whole is a different 
thing from the sum of the parts. It is quite possible 
to have considered every detail of a literary work 
and yet to be far from understanding the work as 
a whole; nay, our very preoccupation with the 
details may have obscured the sense of the whole, 
just as we say, proverbially, that a man is unable 
to see the city for the streets, is unable to see the 
wood for the trees. On the other hand, the Inter- 
pretation of Perspective keeps the book before the 
student always as a whole, with attention to the 
way in which its different parts hang together. If 
there are obscurities, we must sweep through the 
book a second and a third time — or, it may be, a 
twentieth and thirtieth time — and watch the 
obscurities vanish in the light of the book as a whole. 
The difference might be illustrated by the difference 
between seeing a play of Shakespeare upon the stage 
and reading the same in an annotated edition. The 
scholarship represented by the stage, or even the 
acting, may be second rate : and yet the spectator 
cannot fail to form some idea of the play as a whole, 
though it may be an impression that needs correc- 

103 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

tion. On the other hand, he may have read the 
play in a scholarly edition, and obtained valuable 
information as to allusions and peculiarities of lan- 
guage, and yet he may have failed altogether to grasp 
the drama as a unity. 

Of course, when a reader approaches an ancient 
poem for the first time, he may find himself unable 
to read the book at a sitting. Study of particular 
parts may be necessary, and perhaps assistance 
from others may be required. The point is, that 
when this study has been done, the reader must 
not suppose that he knows the book, until he has 
set himself to take in the whole at one view. And 
those who direct study can render no greater service 
to their pupils than putting, by " interpretative 
recital" or otherwise, the whole of a book at a single 
sitting. 

Reading the whole Bible as a spiritual unity 

But few readers will be content with single books 
of the Bible. There is always the question of the 
Bible as a whole, in its literary and spiritual unity. 
Here is a case for the Interpretation of Perspective 
on a larger scale. And I think that special students 
of the Bible owe to the general reader the assistance 
of restating, from time to time, the general drift 

104 



APPENDIX 

and unity of the sacred Scripture. One such re- 
statement I have attempted in the first part of this 
book. With or without the assistance of such 
a general view of the Bible, students will wish to do 
detailed reading that serves to bring out for the 
Bible the interconnection of its parts. Hence I 
am here offering a Scheme of Reading in the Bible 
as a whole which I have found useful in my own 
teaching. The Scheme .is self-explaining; but 
three preliminary remarks may be made, (i) It 
is announced as a Scheme of Reading in the Modern 
Reader's Bible, and occasionally references are 
made to the pages of that work. But in its essen- 
tial points the scheme can be followed by those who 
use other versions. (2) It is drawn up on the basis 
of Historic Framework and Higher Literary Forms 
in parallel columns. What is called the Historic 
Framework is not intended for reading, but may be 
assumed. The reading is to be in the Higher 
Literary Forms as they stand in relation to the His- 
toric Framework. Here, however, a misunder- 
standing is to be avoided. Where some portion 
of Scripture stands in relation to the Framework, 
the meaning is not that the work was produced 
at the historic point indicated. The date of pro- 
duction of any part of Scripture is a question that 
belongs to the historic, not the literary study of 

io5 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

the Bible. The meaning is that the work in ques- 
tion illustrates the part of the Historic Framework 
to which it is attached. (3) At the end of the 
Scheme three special Notes will be found, relating 
to questions of the Bible about which there is a good 
deal of misunderstanding. — The Scheme of Read- 
ing will be found below (pages 113-36), followed 
by particulars of the Modern Reader's Bible (page 
136). 

Exercises in Bible study 

It is a gratifying sign of the times that a great 
awakening of interest in the Bible appears on all 
sides. Study clubs, and reading circles, are being 
formed ; and the question is much discussed whether 
the Bible cannot be restored to its place in general 
education. I am sometimes asked by such study 
clubs to offer suggestions ; in particular, to suggest 
"exercises" in Bible study. As to this last point, 
I feel great difficulty in acceding to such requests, 
as I believe that no one can draw up effective 
"exercises" who does not know all the particular 
circumstances of those who are to use them. I am, 
however, offering here a set of exercises which I 
have found useful in my own teaching. But if 
any reader finds that these exercises do not appeal 
to him, I shall not be surprised. It is for the local 

106 



APPENDIX 

directors of Bible study to find out exercises ap- 
propriate to their particular 'constituency. 

Specimen exercises 1 

I. Book of Job. Note what appear as Five 
Solutions for the mystery of human suffering. 
Note the speakers, or parts of the poem, from which 
these different solutions come. A free talk on the 
value of these solutions for human life. 

II. How does the " Satan " of the Book of Job 
differ from ordinary conceptions of "the Devil"? 
[Compare page 1661.] — Compare with the Mephis- 
topheles of Faust, or the Satan of the Paradise Lost. 
— Is this Satan hostile to God ? or to Job ? 

III. Meter in Biblical Poetry. [A simple de- 
scription on pages 1431-33 ; a more elaborate 
treatment commencing page 1517.] Read aloud 
Psalm 105, verses 8-15, omitting alternate lines; 
read again, putting in these lines : thus realize how 
" parallelism " may have the effect of verse in other 
languages. — For the bearing of such parallelism 
on the meaning, compare the Song of Lamech (page 
7), the Lord's Prayer (page 1256), the Eighth Psalm 
(page 751), and the first chapter of Genesis (compare 
page 1543). 

1 Study of Introductions and Notes of M.R.B. assumed. 

107 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

IV. The unity of a poem (or series of poems) 
may lie in the external circumstances of its delivery. 
As an exercise, read the historical account in Samuel 
of the bringing of the Ark to Jerusalem (see page 
1607) ; read it a second time putting in the series 
of psalms indicated. Realize this as a picture of a 
single day's solemnity. — A similar exercise is to 
compare Psalms 116 and 118, the latter being read 
dramatically. — A more extended illustration is 
to read Psalms 120-134 (see note on pages 1622-23). 

V. Read dramatically Deborah's Song (Judges v). 
Read also the narrative in the preceding chapter. 
[Note the hint in iv. 10-12 of Heber's treachery.] 
A free talk on the nature of this incident. 

VI. Read the four National Anthems (see page 
1617) in the order 136, 105, 78, 106. Discuss how 
these reflect successive stages in the national his- 
tory. — Add Psalm 107 as a further stage. 

VII. The unity of a lyric poem may take a variety 
of forms. As an illustration, read aloud Psalms 29, 
1, 23, 139, 65 and 84. [For the last see note on 
page 1535.] 

VIII. Study the note on Dramatic Psalms (page 
1602). As illustrations read aloud Psalms 57, 3, 50. 
Discuss what is essential to make a lyric poem 
" dramatic." 

IX. The Song of Songs is a series of poems with 

108 



APPENDIX 

an underlying love-story. The successive poems put 
the incidents of the story in an order different from 
the order in which the incidents would actually 
take place. After studying this, turn the whole 
into a (brief) narrative following the order in which 
the incidents would take place (beginning with 
what appears at the bottom of page 894). — A 
free talk on the whole poem (1) as a love-story, 
(2) in its spiritual application. 

X. Deuteronomy. Let four members of a class 
give the substance of the four orations, with the 
finer passages; let a fifth do the same with the 
Song ; and let a sixth deal with the Farewell Scene. 
— As an addition: read aloud Psalms 90 and 91 
as expansions of the parting words of Moses. 

XI. Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus. Let different mem- 
bers of a class pick out interesting examples of 
proverbs, riddles, maxims, number-sonnets, and 
especially essays. A free talk on such " wisdom " 
as the philosophy of common life. 

XII. Read aloud: (1) The Imaginary Search of 
Solomon for Wisdom as it appears in Ecclesiastes 
(page 1 010) and (2) the Historical Incident of 
Solomon's finding Wisdom as it appears in the Book 
of Wisdom (page 1025). — A free talk on all that 
this suggests. 

XIII. Read aloud the brief account in Exodus x. 

109 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

21-23 of the Plague of Darkness, and then the elab- 
orate treatment of the same in the Wisdom of 
Solomon (pages 1033-34). — Free talk on simple 
descriptions and highly imaginative pictures. 

XIV. Study the description of a Prophetic 
Rhapsody (pages 1392-93). Take such an example 
as Isaiah xxiv-xxvii (pages 497-501) : and (like a 
spectator watching the presentation of a drama) 
indicate exactly what passes in this rhapsody before 
the eye of the imagination. — For another illus- 
tration take Joel (see page 1420). 

XV. The Rhapsody of Zion Redeemed (pages 
512-42). Let members of a class in succession give 
the substance of the Prelude and the Seven Visions : 
and then discuss (1) the change in meaning of 
" Servant of Jehovah" as the poem proceeds; and 
(2) how the " Redeemer" succeeds to the place of 
this Servant in the later visions. Consider this as a 
link between the Old and New Testaments. 

XVI. After studying by itself the heavy-faced 
type found in the text of M.R.B. in the Gospels of 
Luke and Matthew, write a paper on Jesus considered 
as a literary author. 

XVII. Book of Acts. Distinguish successive 
stages in the idea and machinery of world- evangeliza- 
tion, noting how each is ushered in by vision or 
miracle. 

no 



APPENDIX 

XVIII. Illustrate from the later Epistles the 
sense of "the last days," or near approach of the 
expected revelation of Christ. Show how these 
epistles make distinct contributions to the enlarging 
conception of Jesus, his Person and Kingdom. 

The Bible for young people 

The question is often raised, what kind of treat- 
ment is required for interesting in Bible reading 
children and young people. I may point out that 
in the small-volume edition of the Modern Reader's 
Bible (see page 137) three additional volumes have 
been prepared with this purpose in view. They 
are entitled, Bible Stories — Old Testament ; Bible 
Stories — New Testament ; and Biblical Master- 
pieces. The stories are in the language of Scripture 
altered only by omissions. A thread of connection 
between the stories is indicated in italic type; 
but this is intended for the teacher. The under- 
lying idea of these two books is that "story" is the 
natural food of the youthful mind, and equally a 
prominent feature in large parts of the Bible. 
Without too much anxiety as to the spiritual 
significance of these stories it is well to make them 
familiar; when at a later stage higher uses of the 
Bible come to the student, he will be doing this 

in 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

higher work upon material which has become a 
part of his literary inheritance. The design of the 
third volume is to present, in full literary structure, 
portions of the Bible other than stories, and in this 
way to obtain familiarity with Biblical lyric, or 
oratory, or drama. 

Conclusion 

There has been no intention in what has been 
said to undervalue other uses of the Bible than 
the one discussed. My own special work is the 
literary study of the Bible; and, however much 
this may seem to be crowded out by other modes 
of dealing with the sacred Scriptures, I am per- 
suaded that this literary study of the Bible is the 
prerequisite for making other modes of Bible study 
sound and impressive. To sum up the whole matter 
in a sentence : It is when we set about reading 
the Bible "like any other book," that we realize 
fully how profoundly the Bible is different from 
every other book. 



112 



READING SCHEME 
IN THE MODERX READER'S BIBLE 



ii3 



STRUCTURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 



Historic Frame 

Prologue to the Old 
Testament (Genesis i- 



Higher Forms 

Stories of the World's 
Beginnings 



The Old Testament, as Covenant between God and a 
Chosen People, is prefaced by brief surveys of pre- 
vious covenants between God and all mankind as 
represented in common ancestors, Adam and Noah. 



Genesis : Origin of the 
Chosen People in the 
Form of a Family 

The Exodus : Migration 
of the Chosen People : 
Development from a 
Family to a Nation 
— (Exodus, Leviticus, 
Numbers) 



Stories, etc., of Patriarchal 
Families 



Psalms of the Exodus: 
114, 77, 136 

Stories, etc., of the Migra- 
tion 

[Appendices in the form 
of Constitutional Docu- 
ments, especially Cove- 
nants] 



115 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

Oratorical Drama : "Deut- 
eronomy or The Fare- 
well of Moses to Israel " 
[Echoed in Psalms 90- 
91 : see page 1619.] 

The above constitutes the first of the grand divisions 
of Scripture, THE LA W. The underlying spirit- 
ual idea is "Holiness," in the sense of separateness 
from the world. 

From the dramatic point of view the above con- 
cludes the Exposition of the plot: Israel dismissed 
to its world-mission with the Divine blessing. The 
element of Complication begins with the appear- 
ance of the secular spirit: Kings for practical war- 
fare. 

The Judges : Transition Psalm 105 

from a Theocracy to Stories, etc., of the Judges 

a Secular Monarchy David's Lamentation over 

— (Joshua, Judges, part Saul and Jonathan (II 

of Samuel) Samuel i) 

What follows opens up the second of the grand 
divisions of Scripture, THE PROPHETS. {See 
Note below on Prophecy.) The spiritual ideas 
are the struggle toward Righteousness and Love, 
developing Redemption as a supreme ideal. En- 
larging idea of "Holiness." 

116 



APPENDIX 



The Kings: Secular Government of the Kings 
with Spiritual Opposition of the Prophets 



Annals of the Kings 

Reigns of the spiritual 
kings : David and 
Solomon 



The Schism: Revolt of 
the Northern King- 
dom 



The Kingdom of Judah 
succeeds to the posi- 
tion of the Chosen 
Nation 



Stories and Books of the 
Prophets 

Psalms for the Inaugura- 
tion of Jerusalem : 30, 
24, 132, 101. (See 
page 1607.) 

Prophetic Stories 

Dedication Prayer of 
Solomon (in I Kings 
viii) 

Prophetic Stories (up to 

. Page 354) 

Book of Hosea, a native of 
the Northern Kingdom 

Book of Amos, a mis- 
sionary from Judah 

Psalm 78 : Inauguration 
of Judah as the Chosen 
Nation 



Kingdom of Judah in its Book of Isaiah [Isaiah i- 



flourishing period (cul- 
minating in the reign 
of Hezekiah) 



xxxix], a statesman of 
the capital 

Book of Micah, a coun- 
try prophet 

The Sennacherib Psalms : 
46, 48, 76 



117 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

The Prophets sing of a Golden Age in the future 
and a Judgment through which this Golden Age 
will be reached for a remnant. (M.R.B., pages 
1393-Q5 . ) The crisis of the dramatic plot is found 
where it gradually appears that the Judgment in- 
volves the Fall of Israel as a nation. There is a 
glimpse of a New Covenant (page 578), fore- 
shadowing the New Testament. 



Decline and Fall of the 
Kingdom of Judah — 
partial recovery under 
Josiah with the dis- 
covery of Deuteron- 
omy 

The Captivity [Historic 
Frame lacking] 



Book of Jeremiah 
Book of Zephaniah 
Anonymous Prophecies 

(pages 737-42) 
Book of Lamentations 

(page 876) 

Book of Daniel (Baby- 
lon) 

Book of Ezekiel (colony 
on the River Chebar, 
before and after the 
Capture of Jerusalem) 

Psalms of the Captivity : 
106, 74, 79, 137 

Stories of the Captivity 
in Tobit and Esther 



118 



APPENDIX 

Prophetic Works without Specific Chronological 
Relations 



Relations with external 
peoples 



The Chaldean Empire at 

its height 
Nineveh — at its height of 

power 
Nineveh — in its fall 
Ideal Pictures of Judgment 



Prophetic Doom Songs 
in Books of Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 
Obadiah 

Book of Habakkuk 

Book of Jonah 

Book of Nahum 
Book of Joel 
Isaiah xxiv-xxvii 



What follows is a reversion to THE LAW, in its 
later meaning of Ceremonialism. But the collec- 
tions of lyrics belonging to this stage voice the devo- 
tional spirit in touch with all the ideals of Scrip- 
ture. 



Return of the Remnant 
of Judah 
— Period of the Scribes, 
and Tradition of the El- 
ders 



Psalms of the Return: 
85, 107; 120-34 (see 
also note to Psalm 84, 
pages 1 6 19 and 1535) 

The History of the Kings 
recast as "The Chron- 
icles" (compare pages 
1383-87) 



119 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 



Epilogue to the Old 
Testament 
The Divine Scheme of 
all history 



Prophetic Books of Hag- 
gai, Zechariah (Zech- 
ariah i-viii) and Mal- 
achi (page 742) 

Collections of Lyrics of 
all periods : Book of 
Psalms — Book of 
Lamentations — Song 
of Solomon 



Rhapsody of Zion Re- 
deemed (Isaiah xl- 
lxvi. Compare 

M.R.B., pages 1395- 
98). 



WISDOM LITERATURE 

A third of the grand divisions of Scripture is WIS- 
DOM : a devout philosophy of life. It stands 
apart from the general movement of the Bible, and 
attaches itself in the main to the interval between 
the Old and the New Testament. (See Note 
below on Wisdom.) 



Historic Frame Supplied 
from Secular History 

Center of Civilization shift- 
ing westward : Persia 
— Macedonia — Rome 



Higher Forms 



120 



APPENDIX 



Meeting of Hellenic and 
Hebraic 
Hellenic : emphasizing 
the idea of Immortal- 
ity apart from Person- 
ality 
Hebraic : emphasizing 
the idea of Personality 
apart from Immor- 
tality 

Resulting conception of 
Personal Immortality 



The Books of Wisdom 
Proverbs 
Ecclesiasticus 
Ecclesiastes 

Wisdom of Solo- 
mon 



Job : Wisdom drama- 
tized 



STRUCTURE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 

What follows constitutes the fourth of the grand 

divisions of Scripture : THE GOSPEL, or Divine 

Message of Jesus Christ. 

The dramatic movement of the New Testament may 

be seen in the gradually enlarging conception of 

Jesus and his claims, from total rejection at the 

beginning to his final revelation as climax of all 

Scripture and all history. 

The idea of "Holiness" still further spiritualized, 

to the climax of the Christian "Liberty" that is 

higher than "Law." 



Historic Frame 

Acts of Jesus (in Luke or 
Mark) 



Higher Forms 

Sayings of Jesus — dis- 
tinguished in the M.R.B. 



121 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 



by heavy type, making 
possible the study of 
Jesus as an author 



i. Total rejection of 
Jesus at the opening 
of his ministry (Luke 

iv: 14-3°) 

2. Jesus as the Master 
(i.e. Teacher) with a 
following of Disciples 
gradually organized 
into Apostles 

3. From the turning- 
point of Peter's Con- 
fession : Jesus the 
Christ of the King- 
dom of God on earth 

4. Advance to Jerusa- 
lem — Royal Entry 
— Clash with Jewish 
hierarchy — the Old 
Dispensation dis- 
solved by Jesus 

The last days of Jesus with his Disciples, his 
Passion, Resurrection, Ascension: these make a 
pause in the general movement of the New Testa- 
ment. 

Acts of the Apostles: Missionary Epistles of 
in stages Paul 

1. Opening of the Gospel 
in Jerusalem and the 
Holy Land 



122 



APPENDIX 



2. Opening of the Gospel 
to the Gentiles : 
Distinction of Jewish 
Christianity (Jerusa- 
lem) and Gentile 
Christianity (Antioch) 

3. Revelation (at An- 
tioch) of the Mission- 
ary Journey as the 
machinery of world- 
evangelization 

4. Extension of the Gos- 
pel from (stationary) 
Asia to (progressive) 
Europe, with Rise of 
Ecclesiastical Litera- 
ture (epistles) as me- 
dium of world-evan- 
gelization. (Acts xvi: 
6-10.) 



Thessalonians : The ear- 
liest deaths in the prim- 
itive community have 
raised the question of 
the resurrection 

Galatians: Struggle with 
"the circumcision , ' ' 
the contention that 
converts must become 
Jews before they can 
be Christians 

i" Corinthians: Diffi- 
culties of church dis- 
cipline — especially, 
questionings of the 
resurrection 

77 Corinthians: Rival- 
ries undermining the 
authority of Paul, 



123 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 



Conception (inferred from 
the Higher Forms) of 
"the Last Days": 
quickened expectation of 
the "Coming of Christ" 
or "Revelation" 

The Conception of Jesus 
absorbs the "Mystery" 
Religions 



which is needed to 
confirm his higher con- 
ception of Christian 
truth 
Romans: A climax: rec- 
onciliation of Law and 
Gospel to an audience 
which represents uni- 
versal civilization 

Later Pauline and Gen- 
eral Epistles 
Timothy, Titus, Peter, 
Jude, John: emphasis 
on the Last Days 

Ephesians: On the anal- 
ogy of the Mysteries 
[popular religions tak- 
ing the form of an 
outward ritual open to 
all, but an inner inter- 
pretation only for the 
initiated] : the whole 
course of secular his- 
tory such a "mystery " 
with Jesus Christ for 
its hidden meaning. 
(Compare i : 9-10 ; iii : 
9-) 



124 



APPENDIX 



The Conception of Jesus 
absorbs the Religions of 
"the Fulness" 



The Conception of Jesus 
absorbs the Religion of 
the "Circumcision" 



Recognition of Jesus from 
the side of the Law 



Recognition of Jesus from 
the side of Wisdom Phi- 
losophy 



Colossians : On the anal- 
ogy of popular reli- 
gions which "rilled 
up" the interval be- 
tween humanity and 
deity with a hier- 
archy of supernatural 
beings : Jesus Christ 
the "fulness of the 
godhead," filling the 
whole interval be- 
tween God and Man. 
(Compare i : 15, 16, 
19; ii : 9, 1S-19) 

Philippians: The old 
1 ' circumcision ' ' de- 
graded to a "conci- 
sion" : in Jesus Christ 
is the true circum- 
cision 

Hebrews: The most in- 
tense of Hebrews ar- 
gues to his fellow- 
Hebrews that the 
Hebraic Law was only 
a preparation for Jesus 
Christ 

Gospel of Matthew and 
Epistle of James: The 
Gospel of Jesus Christ 



125 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 



Recognition of Jesus from 
the side of Greek Phi- 
losophy 



cast in the forms of 
wisdom literature 
Gospel of John: "The 
Word" [a foundation 
idea in Greek philos- 
ophy] made flesh in 
Jesus Christ 



Prophetic Climax to the 
Whole Bible : 
New revelation of the 
Divine plan of all 
history 



St. John's Revelation : 
A Vision Rhapsody : 
presenting Jesus 

Christ as the Central 
idea of all Scripture — 
and all history as the 
Kingdom of the World 
becoming the King- 
dom of Christ 

Note on Prophecy [Compare M.R.B., pp, 1388-91] 

1. The idea that " prophecy" means "prediction" 
is purely modern, the result of a false etymology. The 
pro- in prophecy is not like the pro- in program, but 
like the pro- in pronoun: a prophet is one who speaks 
in place of God, a mouthpiece of God. Compare 
Exodus vii. 1 . In Psalm cv. 1 5 it is applied to the whole 
People who represent God to other peoples. 

2. A more specific meaning comes into the word with 
the establishment of the Kings : Prophets are now lead- 
ers of opposition, spiritual agitators : representatives 
of the Theocracy in antagonism to the Secular Monarchy. 

126 



APPENDIX 

3. Distinguish between the Earlier Prophets (like 
Elijah), who are men of action, and the Later Prophets 
(like Isaiah) who, without ceasing to be men of action, 
are also men of letters. The Earlier Prophets come 
into literature as heroes of Prophetic Stories ; the Later 
Prophets are represented by miscellaneous Prophetic 
Books. 

4. Page 354 of the M.R.B. makes a dividing point. 
Up to this point the " higher forms " have appeared exactly 
at that part of the historic frame to which they belong. 
From this point the framework is unbroken historic 
narrative, into which the Books of the Prophets have 
to be fitted as "higher forms." Compare the table on 
pages 1390-91. 

5. The Later Prophets, to their own generation, 
serve like the Earlier Prophets as leaders of opposition. 
But, in addition to this, the eternal element of their 
Divine message, stripped of all that is accidental or 
occasional, is embodied in the higher literary forms (of 
discourse, song, drama, etc.) with a message that is for 
all time. Our Books of the Prophets reflect both kinds 
of prophetic activity. [Compare Jeremiah xxxvi, where 
the daily ministrations of a long course of years are at 
once condensed and intensified in a written form not 
too long to be read at a single sitting.] 

6. Special literary forms are characteristic of the 
prophets : especially (1) the Doom Form [Divine mono- 
logue, interrupted by passages of lyrics realizing this in 
action: compare M.R.B. , page 1399] and (2) the Rhap- 
sody, or Spiritual Drama [see M.R.B., pages 1^2-g^l 

127 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 
Note on Wisdom Literature 

The Books of Wisdom, taken as a whole, belong, 
logically, to the interval between the Old and the New 
Testaments. The world-mission of a national theocracy 
has fallen; the new world-mission of Christianity has 
not yet arisen; in the interval the interest of Human 
Life comes to the front, and Wisdom is devout medita- 
tion on Life. [The M.R.B. is especially full on this 
portion of Scripture : in addition to the regular intro- 
ductions and notes there is a Syllabus for difficult books 
(pages 1634, 1646), and Notes on Special Topics (pages 
1536, 153.8).] 

The Historic Frame for this part of Scripture has to 
be supplied from secular history. 

In the interval between the Old and the New Testa- 
ments the center of civilization shifts westwards : from 
Persia to Macedonia (conquests of Alexander and his 
successors), and finally to Rome. The Holy Land is 
profoundly affected by these changes : in particular, the 
forcible extension of Greek civilization by the conquests 
of Alexander produces the fierce struggle of the Hebrews 
under the Maccabees against the cruel Antiochus Epiph- 
anes. Moreover, the city of Alexandria is founded, and 
becomes a center of Judaism hardly second to Palestine. 

Thus to this important period belongs that which is 
the foundation of modern civilization : the fusion of 
the two great civilizations of antiquity, Hebraic and 
Hellenic. [This is fully discussed in the Author's 
World Literature, published by Macmillan.] 

128 



APPENDIX 

All this has a special bearing upon Wisdom Literature 
in regard to the question of Immortality. Note : 

(i) The ambiguity in the phrase "Life beyond 
death." Our modern idea of this is a new life, 
commencing at death. The ancient idea was a 
waning survival of life in the grave [compare Job 
xiv. 18-22]. All antiquity recognized such 
waning survival of life, and it was associated 
with the idea of retribution: compare Sheol, 
Tartarus, etc. [A variant of this is the oriental 
conception of " metempsychosis" : the individual 
life reappearing in lower animal and vegetable 
forms ; each such life retributive to the previous 
life.] 

(2) Hellenic civilization stood for the idea of Immor- 
tality in the sense that the soul was indestruc- 
tible. But it was immortality at the expense of 
Personality, the ultimate goal being the absorp- 
tion of the individual into the Universal Soul. 

(3) Hebrew civilization ignored such Immortality, 
but laid the emphasis upon Personality: the 
supreme power of the universe a Personal God. 
Hellenic thought conceived its personal deities 
as only the second power in the universe : above 
them was the impersonal force of Destiny, Fate. 
Hebrew religion achieved the deliverance of the 
world from this idea of Destiny. 

' (4) From the fusion of these contrasting civilizations 
comes the conception of the Immortality of the 
Individual Soul. 

K 129 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

Thus a special interest for Wisdom literature is the 
gradual attainment of this idea of Immortality. In 
Proverbs and Ecclesiasticus the idea is conspicuous by 
its absence. The author of Ecclesiastes belongs to 
Palestine: all around him are floating these ideas of 
Immortality, which his Hebrew proclivities will not 
allow him to accept : hence his pessimism. The Wisdom 
of Solomon comes from the Judaism of Alexandria : its 
foundation thoughts are that God made not death, 
that righteousness is immortal. (Compare pages 1475, 
1477-80.) In Job, the idea of immortality is found in 
momentary flashes of spiritual insight. (Compare 
page 1494, and Job xiv; xvi. 19; xix. 23-30. Note 
that the other speakers in the drama pay no attention 
to these suggestions of immortality.) 



Note on the Book of Revelation 

The straightforward reading of this book has 
been made less easy than that of other parts of 
Scripture by a peculiarity of form that can readily 
be understood from literary history. On the one 
hand, we have a Vision Poem, singularly clear and 
logically coherent; this is the poem sketched in 
the first part of this book, and its form is easy 
to follow in the M.R.B. arrangement. On the 
other hand, there are particular passages, which do 
not conflict with the Vision Poem, nor suggest any 

130 



APPENDIX 

alternative interpretation, but which do seem to 
interrupt the continuity of the thought at the 
points where they occur. 

It must be remembered that the " apocalypse " 
was an exceedingly common form of literature in 
the centuries preceding and following our Book of 
Revelation. The centuries were times of persecu- 
tion and trouble ; and these apocalypses were organs 
of consolation. Ultimately, this form of literature 
is based upon the Vision Poems of the prophets, 
but there is a difference. Prophecy deals with 
general principles of Divine Providence, and uses 
symbols that are typical; the apocalypses went 
beyond this to specific predictions and particular 
applications. Historical scholars have suggested 
that our Book of Revelation was arrived at by the 
working over of one or more of these apocalypses. 
What seems more probable is that the text of our 
Revelation is made up of the Vision Poem described 
above with the addition of comments and reflec- 
tions upon particular points in it. The comments 
would be written originally on the margin of the 
book, and in course of long time have been drawn 
into the text. These comments may have come 
from some reader of the original poem; more 
probably they have come from the author, the seer 
who names himself John. In this latter case, the 

131 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

comments must be kept distinct from the body of 
the poem. A prophet may well, in his more or- 
dinary moods, comment on points which specially 
appeal to him in what he received during moments 
of supernatural inspiration. While no exact parallel 
can be cited, readers of the prophetic books, es- 
pecially Jeremiah and Ezekiel, will be familiar with 
the idea of the prophet commenting upon what he 
receives from outside. Many passages of Revela- 
tion fit in with this suggestion. 

i. There are first the reflections of the seer him- 
self in the course of the visions [distinguished in 
the M.R.B. by italic type]. These must be under- 
stood as part of the Vision Poem ; they go beyond 
reflections, and include dialogue with the personages 
of the visions. A typical case is xiii. 9-10, where 
the seer, at a point where hostile forces are being 
revealed, strengthens his "patience" by recalling 
other parts of the visions. 

2. Two passages xiii. 18 and xvii. 9-1 1 seem to 
announce themselves as such comments. The 
first begins with the words Here is wisdom, and 
proceeds to make application of a symbolic ex- 
pression just received to some particular person — 
an allusion intelligible to contemporaries but lost 
to modern readers. Similarly, the second opens 
with the words Here is the mind which hath wisdom, 

132 



APPENDIX 

and makes a particular application of what has just 
been said. The whole context xvii. 6-18 is coherent 
without the interrupting verses; it is noticeable 
that in what belongs to the vision itself each item 
explained by the angel to the seer is accompanied 
with the words which thou sawest: these words are 
absent from the interrupting verses. Perhaps the 
last clause of ix. n is a similar comment: the pre- 
ceding sentence has reached a natural conclusion 
in the mention of the " angel of the abyss," where- 
upon a note is added giving the name of this person- 
age in Hebrew and in Greek. 

3. What appears in the M.R.B. as the " Seven 
Last Words" is especially important from this 
point of view. As read in ordinary versions the 
passage (xxii. 6-17) is apt to appear as a continua- 
tion of the vision, especially as personal pronouns 
are used. It is much better to understand it as 
seven separate reflections or comments, the last 
vision having reached a pronounced climax and 
conclusion in verse 5. Choice passages of the 
visions are cited, with more or less exactness, or 
single difficulties are explained. Thus verses 6-10 
are echoes of xix. 9-10 [compare xxi. 5]. It is 
surely not meant that twice the seer fell down be- 
fore the angel and twice received the same rebuke. 
Verse 7 is founded on iii. 3 and 11. Verse 16 is 

*33 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

the author's explanation of ii. i ; the second clause 
is his interpretation of " first and last" in i. 18. 
This verse also repeats i. 1-8. In reference to 
what stands as title page in the M.R.B. arrange- 
ment (i. 1-8) I understand the real title of the book 
to be merely the words, "The Revelation of Jesus 
Christ"; the rest is an exegetical addition and 
application to what the author believes to be the 
last times. The use of the pronouns would be 
clearer if we were to write in verse 8 I {John) 
am he that heard, and in verse 16/ {Jesus) have 
sent. 

4. It is noticeable also that the Prologue of the 
Words to the Seven Churches, while echoing in its 
structure the Book of Amos, is also constructed 
on the basis of fragments from the visions with 
applications to particular churches. One passage 
of this (i. 7-8) is clearly an example of the kind of 
comments under consideration. The Prologue com- 
mences in the exact form of the superscription to 
N. T. epistles, down to the word Amen; it would 
naturally continue, as in verse 9, "I, John, your 
brother, etc."; what is interjected between is a 
double ejaculation of adoration called forth by the 
words of the superscription. 

5. It will be remembered that throughout the 
N. T. epistles two phrases are used to express the 

134 



APPENDIX 

sense of the last times — viz. "the coming of 
Christ" and "the revelation of Jesus" — and there 
is no suggestion of any conflict between the two 
expressions. The Vision Poem itself is clearly 
founded upon "the revelation of Jesus"; the re- 
flections show the writer clinging to the other idea, 
the coming of Christ. The expression "The time 
is at hand," and similar expressions, cannot be a 
basis for what is called the "futurist" interpreta- 
tion of the whole book, since the reference is clearly 
to an immediate, not a distant future. Expres- 
sions of time in the body of the book refer to time 
in the course of the visions. Compare, at the be- 
ginning (iv. i), "The things which must come to 
pass hereafter," with the words of the Seventh 
Vision (xxi. 6) "They are come to pass." So in 
x. 6-7, the expression, "There shall be time no 
longer," has no reference to the distinction of Time 
and Eternity, but (as the context shows) to the 
time of the mystery of prophecy giving place to the 
unfolding of this mystery in the proclamation of 
Christ. The expressions of time in the visions — 
such as a thousand years, forty and two days — are 
to be read as longer or shorter divisions in the 
symbolic time of the visions, and have no signifi- 
cance in actual time. The sequence of the visions 
is logical, not temporal. Compare the vision 

135 



THE BIBLE AT A SINGLE VIEW 

rhapsody of Isaiah xxiv-xxvii (M.R.B., pages 1572- 

73)- 

6. Outside the Book of Revelation is the clear 
parallel of the Book of Daniel, which is generally 
recognized as a Vision Poem supplemented by other 
visions of an apocalyptic character. Differences 
of language and modes of expression emphasize the 
different character of the two. (See Introduction 
to Daniel in M.R.B., pages 1416-18.) A minor 
parallel is the conclusion to the Gospel of John 
where, when the narrative has reached its conclusion, 
there is a comment (verse 24) by some reader, or 
by the Church, endorsing the book as the com- 
position of John. 

When once the idea of comments and reflections 
is recognized, it becomes easy, in reading, to separate 
them from the clear and coherent narration of the 
vision. Of course, such passages remain a part of 
the canonical Book of Revelation. This, however, is 
a matter that belongs to theology, not to literature. 



The Modern Reader's Bible is issued in two different forms : 

A. The whole in a single volume of 1733 pages: Text, 1358 
pages, Introductions and Notes, 375 pages. [Published 
by Macmillan. Price in America, cloth, $2.00 net; mo- 
rocco, $5.00 net. Price in England, cloth, 10s. net; 
leather, 12s. 6d. net.] 

136 



APPENDIX 

B. The whole in twenty-one small volumes: approximately 
one volume for each book of Scripture : volumes sold 
separately. [Published by Macmillan. Price in America 
of each volume, cloth, 50 cents ; leather, 80 cents. Price 
in England of each volume, 2s. 6d.] 

Those who wish to read particular books of Scripture often 
prefer the smaller volumes, which can be procured sepa- 
rately. The titles of the separate volumes are as follows : 

Genesis — The Exodus — Deuteronomy — The Judges — 
The Kings — The Chronicles 

The Psalms (two volumes) — Biblical Idyls (one vol- 
ume containing The Song of Songs, Ruth, Esther, 
Tobit) 

Isaiah — Jeremiah — Ezekiel — Daniel and the Minor 
Prophets 

Proverbs — Ecclesiasticus — Ecclesiastes and the 
Wisdom of Solomon — Job 

St. Luke and St. Paul (two volumes) — St. Matthew 
(including the General Epistles) — St. John 

[Additional volumes intended for young people : Bible 
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Those who wish to read particular books in the one- volume 
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are given the books of Scripture in the order in which they 
stand in ordinary Bibles, with the pages of the present 
edition at which will be found the Introduction, Text, and 
Notes for each book. 



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A Popular Illustration of Fiction as 
the Experimental Side of Philosophy 



By RICHARD G. MOULTON, M.A., Ph.D. 

Cloth, i2mo, 381 Pages, $i.JO 

" The book is in reality a thoughtful exposition of the marvellous ability 
of the master to depict every side of human nature and to develop character 
good and bad to its logical outcome. The author has done this in an in- 
teresting manner, and has unquestionably written a volume well worth 
reading." — Providence Journal. 

"One of the most sensible and illuminating works of modern literary 
criticism and plain, workaday philosophy. It is a work which it is not 
necessary to be a Shakespeareographer or a student of isms to enjoy, but a 
reasonable disquisition of the ordinary problems of life based on a collection 
of life dramas which are familiar to every one; an excellent idea; for, as the 
author says, the study of human life will never hold its own, in comparison 
with the study of human nature, until we recognize the true position of poetry 
and fiction in philosophy." — Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 

" A unique study of Shakespeare that will be of peculiar interest to scholars 
and students of ethics. The vast .proportion is comment upon life itself, 
touched as life is at myriad points by creations of the Shakespearean 
drama." — Worcester Spy. 

" The work is exceedingly interesting to those who make the study of 
Shakespeare the basis of a well-grounded literary cult and education. To 
such the book will prove of absorbing interest." 

— Pittsburg Chronicle Telegraph. 

" While it is undoubtedly true that the world ought not to require books 
about books, the fact remains that young, and even older, students of Shake- 
speare may learn much about the dramas and about life itself from these 
essays." — St. Paul Dispatch. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publisher!) 64-66 Fifth Avenue Hew York 



WORLD LITERATURE 



By R. G. MOULTON, M.A., Ph.D. 

Professor of Literary Theory and Interpretation in the University of 

Chicago, Author of " Shakespeare as a Dramatic Thinker," 

Editor of " The Modern Reader's Bible," etc. 

Cloth, iStno, $1.75 

In these days of "five-foot shelves" and "best selected books," 
the publication of such a volume as " World Literature " is an event 
not to be overlooked. Professor Moulton has presented a concep- 
tion of world literature as a clear unity, the literary field seen in 
perspective from the English point of view. He has supplemented 
the theoretic treatment by valuable expositions of masterpieces. To 
the general reader the work will suggest a rational scheme or phi- 
losophy which should be at the back of any attempt to make a selec- 
tion of the " best books." To the student it will illustrate a treat- 
ment of the subject unhampered by the divisions between particular 
literatures expressed in different languages which is too often a great 
weakness in literary study. Professor Moulton 's idea is that World 
Literature belongs to every stage of general culture from the most 
elementary to the most advanced. 

" Full of the vital quality of its subject." — New York Sun. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



THE ONE-VOLUME BIBLE COMMENTARY 

By Various Writers. Rev. J. R. DUMMELOW, Editor 

Should be in the hands of every student of the Bible. Other works may 
prove useful to extend special lines of study ; the foundation will be broad 
and deep if after the Bible itself the student bases his study on this volume. 

In one volume, with general articles and maps, $2.50 

" ' The One- Volume Bible Commentary ' breaks a new path in exegetical 
literature. It is a marvel of condensed scholarship. I know of no book that 
compresses so much solid information into the same number of pages. While 
up-to-date in every respect, I rejoice to note its prevalent conservatism and 
its reverent tone." — Henry E. Jacobs, Lutheran Theological Seminary, 
Mount Airy, Philadelphia. 

" This book is no bigger than a good sized Bible, but in it the whole Bible 
is expounded. This is what families and Sunday-school teachers have long 
been waiting for. The other commentaries are in too many volumes and cost 
too much to get into the ordinary domestic library. But this fits any shelf. 
The explanations clear away the difficulties and illuminate the text. They 
make it possible for anybody to read even the prophets with understanding. 
The critical expositions are uniformly conservative, but the best scholarship 
is brought to them. This is what devout and careful scholars believe. To 
bring all this into moderate compass and under a reasonable price is a notable 
accomplishment." — Dr. George Hodges, Dean of the Episcopal Theo- 
logical School, Cambridge, Mass. 

" An astonishing amount of information has been compressed into these 
pages, and it will be difficult to find another book anything near this in size 
which will be as helpful to the general reader as this. Sunday-school teach- 
ers, Bible students, Christian Endeavorers, and all that are interested in the 
study of the Word of God will find here a store of helpful suggestions." 

— Christian Endeavor World. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



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